Recent Researches in Sikhism - Global Sikh Studies

Recent Researches 

in Sikhism 

editors 

JASBIR SINGH MANN 

KHARAK SINGH

PUNJABI UNIVERSITY, PATIALA 

RECENT RESEARCHES IN SIKHISM 

editors 

JASBIR SINGH MANN 

KHARAK SINGH 

Papers 

Contributed at the Religious Conferences 

Held in Canada and the U.S.A. 

(1990) 

1992 

First Edition : 1,100 

Price : 150-00 

Published by Sardar Tirath Singh, Regisrar, Punjabi University Patiala and 

printed at Punjabi University Press, Patiala

1 

“FUNDAMENTALISM,” “MODERNITY” : 

SIKHISM A TERTIUM QUID 

NOEL Q KING 

“Fundamentalism” in its strictest technical use refers to a 

movement within American Protestant Evangelicalism of fairly recent 

origin. The word has come to be linked with various literalist, 

evangelical and charismatic groups and televangelists. Thence it has 

been applied to religious extremists who claim to be returning to 

fundamentals. 1 We find the media and some scholars using it of the 

Pire pinis cargo cultists of yesterday in Sepik River, New Guinea, 

onwards to the Babri masjid\Ram jaMm bhoomi folk in today’s India. 

Recently in his Defenders of God, the Fundamentalist Revolt against the 

Modern Age, Bruce B. Lawrence with great scholarly care and erudition 

defines terms and deals mainly with what he considers prime examples- 

American -style Protestant Fundamentalists, the lthna- ashariya Shia 

of Iran and such defenders of “The Jewish collectivity” as Gush 

Emunim. 2 He refers the movements back to some of the major concepts 

of modern world history as it has developed since World War I. We 

will turn back to this shortly. 

“Modernity” and “Modernism” refer to a tendency among 

religions to update themselves by accepting concepts and techniques 

from the modern secular world .around them. The words are sometimes 

used as a kind of second part in a dichotomy-”Fundamentalism versus 

Modernity/Modernism”. They easily fit into the academic discussion 

on the “modernization” of religions like Islam or the influence of 

modern America of the Third Republic in France on their own Roman 

Catholicism early in the century. 3 But easily the concepts elide towards 

association with western dominance and the Great Western 

Transmutation (abbreviated to GWT) by which the world was 

transformed between 1492 and 1947. 4 

3

Here it is necessary for our purposes to interject that the word 

“fundamentalist” has been applied to Sikhism too by both media and 

scholars especially in the time leading up to and since the tragic 

Operation Blue Star. Recent examples include Angela Dietrich’s “The 

Khalsa Resurrected: Sikh Fundamentalism in the Punjab. 5 In this article 

which struggles to be sympathetic and respectful, the essay on the 

Sikhs rubs shoulders with those on Fundamentalist Muslims in West 

Africa, Iran and Egypt, Secularists in Turkey, Sri Lankan Hindus in 

Britain, Protestant Tamils in Madras, as well as the American Moral 

Majority. Again, late in 1989 at a meeting of the American Academy 

of Religion at Anaheim in California, a panel discussed these issues in 

connection with Sikhism. A paper which has not to date been published 

and which requests it be not quoted for it had not been finalized, was 

read by Professor Harjot Oberoi of Vancouver. It was entitled “Sikh 

Fundamentalism: Ways of Turning Things Over?” 

In the discussion generated it became clear that though a religion 

which used a mool-mantra and was given to mulvad obviously got down to 

fundamentals, the word “Fundamentalist” could, hardly be used in the 

same way as it was of American Fundamentalists. There was also 

considerable objection to the way in which by the use of social science 

and Marxist historical methods it was to be supposed that Sikhs were 

mainly peasants who were led along by a few people who drew them out 

from the main body of Hinduistic Indians. The idea was also hotly contested 

that deep changes in Sikh History from 1699 onwards came in response 

to outer stimuli on the part of a body in which it was alleged increasingly 

Jats had taken over leadership from Khatris. If we reject such explanations 

of evolution into modernity and other similary based arguments and 

hypotheses, what better propositions can we put forward to explain the 

Sikh situation today? In answering it is necessary to note that modernizing 

thought since the so-called Enlightenment, a European movement 

especially reflected in philosophy of the eighteenth century, has tended to 

discount any use of hypotheses of explanations which include the 

supernatural or that which passes human understanding. Recently some 

cracks in this carapace have begun to show. 

It is now possible to tune back and take up our consideration 

of the position of Fundamentalism, Modernity and Sikhism over against 

their background in some major trends of thinking about 

4

World History. World History is not a modern western invention. In 

the eighth century before the Common Era strata of the Jewish Torah, 

building on much older West Asian and Egyptian ideas, and the Jewish 

Scriptures as a whole give us a schema of how the nations came to be 

and how they interact and the plan of their history. In the Puranas 

Indic thinkers give us concepts of world ages and world movements. 

In the eighth/fourteenth century Ibn Khaldun gives us in his 

Muqaddimah a pattern which looks back to the earlier thinking of Arabs 

and Jews. 

It is impressive how many older Sikhs of my generation read 

at High School H.G. Wells’ Short History of the World which originally 

came out in 1924. I have also met a good number who have read 

Toynbee. Although Karl Jaspers wrote in German many of his ideas 

have come to be known to users of English. Thus a number of us take 

it almost for granted that there is a kind of intellectual spirit of the 

age (Zeitgeist) which seems mysteriously to affect thinkers across the 

world with the same kind of ideas just as it is said new bird songs will 

spread from bird to bird across an island. Jaspers especially juxtaposes 

the Athenian philosophers, the Hebrew prophets, the U panishadic 

seers and the Chinese sages in an Axial Age. 6 

Joseph Needham in his eighty-eighth year remarked that if he 

had time to carry the implications of his History of Science and Technology 

in China into World History he would very much desire to trace Taoist 

ideas and techniques for instance with regard to chemistry and the use 

of gun powder in their influence upon Muslim scientists such as the 

alchemists. 7 One could follow this up to try to postulate a transmission 

of thinking even in a perverted way between the original Chinese 

invention of gunpowder and the Portuguese floating fortress. There 

are many such transmissions which suggest themselves but lack of 

sound historical evidence interdicts even their formulation. We turn 

back to trying to trace some factors in History of Religion which, if. 

not transmitted, naturally overtake or take place in an ecclesiastical 

body or corpus at a certain point in her life. 

At Chicago William McNeill and Marshall Hodgson formulated 

ideas which have deeply affected Bruce Lawrence whose book was 

mentioned above. In her years of Empire, Muslim Civilization was 

according to this hypothesis breathed through and through by q religion 

which was its conscience and shaper. But during the time of “the 

Great Western Transmutation” of world 

5

history, religion was apparently not a predominant controlling factor 

or an effective conscience. 8 However, when some thinkers in great 

cultures and civilizations, including western culture, see their societies 

disintegrating, their young being lost to them, their best traditions 

destroyed, they turn desparately to their religions as a means of hope 

and a way of working for survival, recovery and resurgence. This is a 

comparatively late movement which of its own nature must come after 

the modernizers have brought the threatening outside influences into their 

own most cherished holies of holies. As a movement it too will use the 

language and methods of the enemy in its attempt to recover the 

fundamentals as it imagines them. It too will invent tradition. It too will 

use science and technology and be dependent on them and indeed be 

transformed by them. Broadly and approximately Fundamentalism may 

be considered such a movement or a manifestation of this tendency. 

Let us turn back to Sikhism. Sikhism was presented to the world 

by the first Guru who lived from 1469 to 1539. The tenth occupied the 

takht from 1675 to 1708. During those centuries the Punjab faced yet 

more of the Muslim invasions which had gone on since the days of Mahmud 

of Ghazni, and the Europeans arrived and began to weave India into their 

world web. In the nineteenth century they broke in with full force bringing 

their world diseases, economics, their philosophical, religious and political 

ideals and failures. They brought their ways of education, science and 

technology. Everywhere the local product seemed to be swept away. Even 

their intellectual history with its tale of revolutions in politics, literary 

critical method, social and gender structure, its divorce between religion, 

ethics, philosophy and politics found local supporters and exponents and 

some partial acceptance. But the response in Sikhism was not just one of 

meeting one emergency after another, or the evolution of an overall 

response by anyone person nor of a committee nor of a group of leaders. 

Rather at base it was the continued unfolding of the enseeded, encoded 

nature of Sikhism as originally propounded by the first Mahala and the 

other nine. After the tenth it was vested in the Book and in the Sangat and 

the same Spirit told forth the same truths as they applied to that stage of 

life. Let us give but one brief example. It was not one 

person, however brilliant, saying Hum Hindu nain hai late in the nineteenth 

century but the First Teacher coming up from the Three Day Waters saying 

Hai nain Hindu, Hai nain Mussulman which is 

6

asic. The nineteenth century remark is but a working out of the early 

teaching. in that dichotomy we find posited a third something (the 

tertium quid of our title): Sikhism. 

In the debate about Fundamentalism and Modernity other buzz 

words are appearing. These include “primitivism,” that is, the seeking 

for a primitive pure state and the attempt to imitate it under present 

day conditions. This may be called the restoration ideal or a quest for 

a return to the primordial, a seeking for a renewal of a primal vision. 

At the same time many are talking of ours as a post-modern age. There 

is growing suspicion of western ways just as they penetrate more and 

more places. A colleague brought back from former East Germany a 

copy of a poster which shows an attractive young western woman 

giving a cigarette in a packet labelled “West” to a Russian official who 

is choking on his own cigarette. The caption in Russian says “Try out 

the West” or more snappily “Test the West.” A caption in German 

says “This applies in East Germany too.” On the packet there is a 

printed warning in English about Life in the West with “its banal culture 

and brutal extremes of poverty.” 

In their day thinkers both Eastern, Western and from Africa 

and the Pacific have done their best. We test their best, each time the 

teachings of Sikh ism may seem to be fitted into their categories. Then 

we find it escaping their fingers and passing on its way. Young Sikh 

scholars thoroughly grounded in their own inheritance who are 

encouraged and enabled to devote the years of detailed and disciplined 

study to the age-long international debate from China to California 

via the Punjab and Olduvai Gorge will contribute much to a genuine 

theory of World History. 

PREFERENCES 

1 For dictionary definitions see for instance any recent edition of Webster’s College 

Dictionary, Compare also handbooks like Roger Scruton’s A Dictionary of Political 

Thought, London: Pan Books 1982. These works do not really attempt to define so 

much as to sum up current usage. However, the article’ on “Fundamentalism” in 

edited Mircea Eliade: Encyclopedia of Religions, Free Press and MacMillian: New 

York 1988 volume gives some definitions and bibliography, (This Encyclopedia is 

disgracefully inadequate on Sikhism though one article by Khushwant Singh is a 

masterpiece,) The works of James Barr culminating in his Fundamentalism (London, 

1977), though written from a British point of view, have an exactness of 

scholarship and originality which make fascinating reading. 

7

2 Published by Harper and Row: San Francisco, 1989. 

3 Again for bibliography see in edited Mircea Eliade: Encyclopedia of Religion, 

Volume 10, the articles on Modernism and Modernity 

4 C.W.T. is a term used by Marshall Hodgson whom we mention below which has 

come into jargon use in American Universities. Like the Ninja Mutant Turtles of 

present day fame it is by no means purely western. The British would not have got far 

in India in any of their enterprises without widespread and gifted local help and 

cooperation. The CWT is a world achievement even as it is a world tragedy 

5 Essay number 6 in a collection edited by lionel Caplan: Studies in Religious 

undamentalism, London: MacMillan Press, 1987 

6 With Karl Jaspers it is impossible to pick out a few titles but ed. Edith Ehrlich, etc., 

Basic Philosophical Writings, Selections, Athens: Ohio University Press, 1986 and 

Man in the Modern Age, London: Routledge and K. Paul, 1959, give an inkling 

7 The writer had the privilege of two visits with Dr. Joseph Needham in July 1988. He 

made the remarks quoted in conversation. When I asked after his middle name 

“Noel,” he said he was born on the first Christmas of the century. Volumes 1 and 2 

of his Science and Civilization in China. Cam bridge (England): University Press, 

1956 and 1958, are the most relevant to our purpose. 

8 On William Hardy McNeiII see his Readings in World History, New York: Oxford 

University Press, 1968 and A World History, 1967, subsequently re-edited. On 

Marshall CS. Hodgson see the Venture of Islam: Conscience and History in a orld 

Civilization, Chicago: University Press, 3 volumes, 1974. Other “display options” as 

the ibliographical retrieval systems say, include Sir Herbert Butterfield, Christopher 

Dawson and a host of Others. 

8

2 

AN INCOMPARABLE LITURGY: 

SACRED NIT-NEM AMONG THE WORLD 

RELIGIONS 

NOEL Q. KINC 

The study of the world religions comparatively, that is, side by 

side, is a young subject. 1 Under such names as Comparative Religion, 

Religionsgeschichte, Religious Studies, etc., claiming to be as vertebrate 

as Theology, as carapaced with jargon and technology as a Social 

Science, it has often failed to possess its own soul. Born among the 

euphoria of the “discovery” by Europeans of the religious bases of 

the world cultures it fell easily into Europe’s pitfalls. These ranged 

onwards from the idea that objectivity demanded that the scholar 

should ultimately not believe believers but tacitly consider them 

deceived or deceivers, onwards to the tacit assumption that anything 

which passes human rationality cannot exist. They included the 

European cultural arrogance of the modem day as well as pernicious 

accidents of European cultural history such as the warfare of science 

and religion and philosophy’s desire to scour pots among enemies rather 

than pursue truth in the company of friends. In the pioneer days some 

of its most brilliant exponents were Christian missionaries who should 

have known better than to glorify their own faith by denigrating others. 

Yet in the end they were the brothers of the imperialists just as the 

Norman bishops who dismantled the Anglo-Saxon church were the 

brothers of the barons. The wonder is how often their faith led them 

to sincere admiration and crypto-conversion. This happened quite 

often, especially as the fever of imperialism burnt itself out. Therefore 

we women and men of many faiths and none at all, Western, Eastern, 

and rootless, come with respect and reverence to study together in a 

comparative context a unique gem of world religion, a mountain of 

light. It belongs to the Sikhs who graciously permit and indeed invite 

those who enter by the proper way and in a decent state of body and 

9

mind to join them. No one is asked to leave outside her or his critical 

powers or propensity to discuss. 

The daily prayer of the Sikhs is usually taken to include at least 

Japuji, Japu Sahib, Sudha Swayyei, Rehras Sahib, Ardas and Sohila. I would be 

the last to exclude Anand Sahib. It is fairly common, especially amongst 

older people, to use Sukhmani in addition. In Gurdwara and more public 

and congregational use, Asa-di-var is also used, but our present focus is on 

personal and domestic use. 2 

The first setting-side-by-side (Auseinandetzung, as the Germans 

state it) of our brief comparison is with the outcome of recent study of 

prayer among the primordial religions such as those at the basis of African, 

New Guinean, or Native American Traditional Religions. 3 A great deal of 

work has been done by students of Language, Linguistics, Philosophy, 

Anthropology, and Psychology. Much jargon language has been generated 

but at the same time it has become absolutely clear that the human is a 

prayerful animal. 4 And, let it be whispered, prayer seems to have some 

effect, if only on the pray-er. In this matter Sikh prayer with its roots in the 

old Punjab undoubtedly has primordial and primal affinities. The whole 

resonance of the shabad, so prominent in this liturgy immediately takes 

the worshipper back to the primeval moment when humans first entered 

the land of the five rivers. 5 

A second juxtaposition of Sikh prayer can be with the daily prayer 

of the Muslims. 6 From the first Mahala onwards we know how familiar 

the framers of Sikh Prayer have been with both the Islamic set of prayers 

and Sufi practice. 7 A detailed comparison brings out many similarities of 

intention and effect but an overall difference. 

Even more so in looking at the legion of Hindu practices, it is 

valuable to note the fundamental differences while recognizing common 

ground. 8 Similarly in the world of remnant Buddhism in the days and 

journeys of the ten gurus which has not yet been fully evaluated in the 

context of its relationship to Sikhism. Possibly some of the factors which 

produced the warrior-monk and businessman-under-discipline in Japan 

were held in common and appeared independently. The full meeting of 

Sikhism and Buddhism will be interesting to watch and its next stages 

seem likely to take place in North America. 

Of course the best school in which to study Sikh prayer is regular 

practice and attendance at it. Much can also be learned in conversation. 

As a scholar one longs for a systematic survey which 

10

could tell us how many and how deeply Sikhs in, say, the Punjab, the 

United Kingdom., Canada and California really know, use and practice 

Nit-Nem. One longs to collect narrations of how it has served people’s 

needs in different circumstances. 9 

However our present focus for discussion must be on the 

“Western,” “modern,” “scientific” world that Sikhism has so dramatically 

entered. Here Judaism and Christianity seem to be undergoing the same 

purgation and refinding of selfhood which Sikhism went through from 

the 1840s to 1940s. For twenty years my large classes in California consisting 

mainly of people of Christian, Jewish, or agnostic background have 

betrayed little knowledge of daily prayer. They are willing enough to learn 

but no one has taught them. In this situation we look at Nit-Nem and 

meditate upon its future. The original language cannot be abandoned. 

The wholesale dropping of Latin and the invention of modem Hebrew 

can teach us much. 

There are practical difficulties too. If we depend too much on a professional 

expert, she or he may indeed know the subject profoundly but know nothing 

of the thought-worlds in which our children live. So much must devolve 

on father and mother, they must find time to practice and to teach, 

especially their lives themselves must be a lesson. 

In this short paper I have given a brief and bald summary of what 

is for me a long term and never ending delight and study. 10 Dr. Jasbir Singh 

Mann of California once prescribed for me as I grew older a daily recitation 

of Blessed Sukhmani. One needs many years just to begin to grasp the 

magnitude of the treasure of Sikh Prayer but even a little time given to it 

brings immediate rewards. In a world resounding with ecofeminism and 

cosmic vision we may joyfully acclaim the salok at the end of Japuji which 

begins with those glorious words: 

pavan guru pani pita 

“Air the Guru, water the father, earth great mother, Day and night, 

two men and women nurses with whom the cosmos plays...” 

PREFERENCE 

1 The articles of Eric Sharpe in edited Mircea Eliade: The Encyclopedia of religion, New 

York: MacMiIIan and Free Press, 1988 on Comparative Religion and on 

11

Dialogue of Religion give a factual introduction and extensive bibliography 

2 On the content of Nit-Nem and its availability to study by any who desires to benefit by its 

bounty, see the relevant articles in the forthcoming Encyclopedia of Sikhism, to be published 

at Patiala by Professor Harbans Singh. There are also numerous locally printed Gurmukhi 

texts of Nit-Nem. Their text should be checked with the authoritiative printed texts of the 

Adi Granth. Translations with notes by Sikh authors include Jogendra Singh: Sikh Ceremonies, 

Bombay1941, Chandigarh, 1968, Harbans Singh Doabia: Sacred Nitnem, Amritsar, revised 

editions, 1976 and later, text, transliteration, translation and notes and Gurbachan Singh 

Talib, Nitnem, daily prayer texts of the Sikhs, New Delhi, 1983 

3 Sam D. Gill’s article of “Prayer” in edited Mircea EIiade’s Encyclopedia of Religion is stronger 

on Native American, African and Jewish, Christian, Muslim traditions than it is on South 

or East Asia. Like this Encyclopedia (apart from a few articles) as a whole it seems oblivious 

to Sikhism 

4 Jargon weeds bloom abundantly in this meadow. They range from “Performative utterance” 

to “second-order language facts (meta-language).” Antti Alhonsaari’s Prayer: an Analysis of 

Theological Terminology, Helsinki: Kirjapaino Tarmo, 1973, is a highly technical thin-lipped 

account which somehow also reflects warmth, respect and personal experience 

5 It is important to note that in this article I am not dealing with the important point that 

every part of the Holy Adi Granth Sahib (and hence most of Nit-Nem) has its appropriate 

musical raga. This enhances its beauty even as a setting in gold enhances diamonds. To write 

about it requires the learning of someone like Dr. Gobind Singh Mansukhani whom we 

rejoice to see at this conference 

6 Islam is well-served by the Orientalist encyclopedists under such words as namaz, du a, salat. 

Sardar Narinder Singh of Ottawa reminded me of the great importance of Sufism in this 

context, so at the least one should follow up dhikr (zikr, compare Hebrew root zkr and 

New Testament anamnesis.) 

7 From the still-living Punjab oral tradition in the days when Muslims and Sikhs lived 

together come memories of chuckles from members of both religions when the story was 

told of the Guru discomforting the Mullah who carried out all the motions of prayer 

while fixated on whether his new-born foal would fall down the well 

8 About Hindu practices of prayer one can only say ‘Which practice of the very many?” Shall 

we think of the Vedic hymn of Wandering Thoughts in Prayer, of the woman interceding 

for her sick child before an icon of Lady Kali, of the follower of Patanjali’s Yoga-sutra in 

deep prayerful contemplation? Again for bibliography the reader may follow up relevant 

articles in Eliade or in one of the Encyclopedias of Hinduism. 

9 It is hoped that the various Sikh Associations in Britain and North America will take up 

collecting the individual histories of their members who are the pioneer generation to 

settle in the west. In these histories it is hoped the writers will be asked to give details of 

their use of Nit-Nem and its service to them. 

10 There are items I have mentioned which could be easily each expanded to form the chapter 

of a monograph. With much study perhaps some member of the community could put us 

all in her or his debt with a work comparing Sikh and Christian hymnody. 

12

3 

ESSENCE OF THE SIKH ETHICS 

AVTAR SINGH 

Sikhism is a very distinct religious tradition which has related 

the Divine revelation with a way of life in a manner which shows the 

harmonious convergence of a belief-structure and a 

value-ideal. The knowledge of the real and the goal of its realization 

are presented as one continuum. The life is lived as a journey towards 

Sachiara, the highest reality. 

There is another important aspect of the Sikh religion. The 

people who came to accept the revelation as well as the life-ideal 

constituted a society which was given a very distinct identity. This 

identity has an internal as well as an external constituent. As in the 

case of many other perceptions, the element of external identity is 

more noticeable to a superficial observer. This also appears to be more 

in line with the observations of this kind. Such perceptions are, 

however, often also determined by the pre-conceived ideas about the 

nature of identity. The historical context of this identity is sometimes 

perceived to be an important element of the identity itself. The 

questions of history are thereafter treated as the questions of its 

identity. This confusion results into invitation to the sociologists, 

anthropologists, and some historians, to continue talking about identity 

without reference to the ethical core which is its inner element. The 

results range from genuine confusion to intentional mis-reading of 

Sikhism. 

Some of the recently produced literature on Sikhism shows 

the inadequacies of the methodologies which were devised to deal 

with societies which were insulated in their social interaction and their 

identities were related with their history. It is important to understand 

the question of Sikh identity in terms of its ethical ideal. The Sikh 

philosophy is the proper context in which the questions of its history 

and social development can be understood and Appreciated. 

13

4 

THE SIKH WORLD-VIEW : ITS IDEOLOGYICAL IDENTITY 

DALJEET SINGH 

Introduction :In order to understand the Sikh worldview, it is 

necessary to answer a number of questions, namely, (1) what is the 

spiritual experience of the Gurus about the Fundamental Reality ? 

(2) what are the logical implications of that religious experience ? (3) 

how do these implications or ideas differ from those in other religions 

? (4) did those ideas govern the course of Sikh religion ? and (5) what 

future does the Sikh worldview hold for man ? In answering these 

questions, we shall confine ourselves entirely to the bani in Guru Granth 

Sahib and historically accepted facts about the lives of the Gurus. 

Many of the misrepresentations about Sikhism arise from the failure 

of writers to understand Sikhism on the basis of its thesis, or to define 

Sikhism in terms of doctrines in Guru Granth Sahib. Obviously, in 

this short paper, we shall only give an outline of the Sikh worldview. We 

shall start with a definition of the Fundamental Reality or God in Sikhism. 

God in Sikhism: The Reality or God has been profusely defined 

in Guru Granth Sahib. Guru Nanak calls Him “Karta Purkh” or 

“Creator Person”, the world being His creation. Apart from being 

immanent in the world, He is the Ocean of Virtues, i.e., He is a God 

of Attributes. In defining the fundamental nature of God, the Guru 

says, “Friends ask me what is the mark of the Lord. He is all Love, 

the rest He is Ineffable.” 1 Thus, the key to understanding the Sikh 

worldview is that God is Love. And Love has four clear facets : It is 

dynamic; it is the mother of all virtues and values; it is directive or 

has a will; and it is benevolent towards life in which He is immanent; 

i.e., it generates neither a dialectical movement, nor a class war, nor 

suicidal competition or struggle. 

Corollaries of ‘God is Love’ :This spiritual experience leads to five 

corollaries. First, it ipso facto gives status, meaning and reality to the 

world and life, because Love and God’s Attributes can be 

14

15 

expressed only in a becoming universe. For, when God was all by 

Himself, the question of love and devotion did not arise. In 

unambiguous words, the Guru says, “True is He, and true is His 

creation.” 2 Second, it clearly implies that the religious man has to lead 

a life of creativity and activity. Consequently, a householder’s life is 

accepted and monasticism is spurned. Third, it gives spiritual sanction 

to the moral life of man, indicating thereby that it should be of the 

same character as the loving nature of God. For, “Love, contentment, 

truth, humility and virtues enable the seed of Naam (God) to sprout.” 3 

This clearly prescribes the methodology of deeds. Fourth, it 

unambiguously points out the direction in which human effort should 

move, and the yardstick with which to measure human conduct. This 

sets the goal for the seeker, or Godman. Fifth, it shows the gracious 

interest of God in human affairs and activities. An important attribute 

of God is that He is ‘Guru’ or Enlightener who gives both knowledge 

and guidance, i.e., spiritual experience is noetic. The Guru’s God 

being a God of Will, one feels confident that one is working in line 

with His altruistic Will. For, God is perpetually creating and watching 

the world with His Benevolent Eye. 4 And, He rewards every effort to 

become divine. 5 For that matter, it gives man hope, strength and 

optimism. 

Implication of ‘God is Love’Implication of ‘God is Love’ 

Here it is necessary to stress that the definition that God is Love, 

is extremely important for determining the category of Sikh religion. 

For, all systems in which God is Love, are life-affirming, and there is 

an integral combination between the spiritual life and the empirical 

life of man. And, as in the case of Abu Ben Adam, love of one’s 

fellowmen, is the primary and essential counterpart of the love of 

God. But, in life-negating systems, there is a clear dichotomy between 

the empirical life and the spiritual life of man. And sanyasa, asceticism, 

monasticism, withdrawal from life, pacifism or ahimsa and celibacy 

are the normal modes of the spiritual path. Sikhism, Judaism, Islam 

and Christianity belong to the first category. Jainism and most other 

Indian systems belong to the second category. 

In fact, differences in approach to life are due to the basic 

difference in the spiritual experience. In the second category of systems 

like Vaisnavism and Vedanta, God has been defined as sat-chit-ananda 

(truth-consciousness-bliss). This is far from being a dynamic concept. 

Stace has made a detailed survey of the description various mystics 

give of the nature of their spiritual experience of the Ultimate Reality. 

They all give blessedness, tranquility, holiness, unitary

16 

consciousness and ineffability as the nature of their spiritual 

experience. 6 No mystic mentions love as the characteristic of that 

experience. The distinction is not arbitrary, but real. Huxley says, 

“The Indians say, the thought and the thinker and the thing thought 

about are one and then of the way in which this unowned experience 

becomes something belonging to me; then no me any more and a kind 

of sat-chit-ananda at one moment without karuna or charity (how odd 

that the Vedantists say nothing about love) ...... I had an inkling of 

both kinds of nirvana — the loveless being, consciousness, bliss and 

the one with love, and, above all, sense that one can never love 

enough.” 7 He also says, “Staying in this ecstatic consciousness and 

cutting oneself off from participation and commitment in the rest of 

the world — this is perfectly expressed today in powerful slang, in the 

phrase ‘dropping out.’ It completely denies the facts, it is morally 

wrong, and finally of course, absolutely catastrophic.” “Absolutely 

Catastrophic.” 8 Hence, the religious system laid down by the Gurus is 

radically different from the earlier Indian systems. 

Consequent Differences with OtherConsequent Differences with 

Other 

Religious Systems of IndiaReligious Systems of India 

As it is, the Guru’s concept of God is quite different from the 

concept of many of the quietist mystics, or from the Indian concept 

of sat-chit-ananda. We find that Guru Nanak’s system follows strictly 

his spiritual experience and his view of the Attributes of God. And as 

a Godman, he seeks to follow the line of expression of God’s attributes 

in the world of man. Consequently, in the empirical life, this concept 

has important implications which stand emphasised in the bani and 

life of Guru Nanak. Hence, Guru Nanak’s system and its growth are 

entirely different from his contemporary religious systems and their 

growth. 

First, it means, as already pointed out, the reality of the world 

and the life-affirming character of Sikhism. For, God is not only 

immanent in the world, He also expresses His Love and Attributes in 

the empirical world, and casts a Benevolent Eye on His creation. But 

in Vedanta and other Indian systems, the world is either mithya, an 

illusion, a misery, or a suffering. Second, Sikhism being life-affirming, 

this, inevitably, involves an integral combination between the spiritual 

life and the empirical life of man. This constitutes the foundation of 

the miri-piri doctrine laid down by Guru Nanak in his bani. In other 

words, Guru Nanak’s system is a whole-life system like Islam and 

Judaism, which also

17 

combine the spiritual and the empirical lives of man. Third, in 

consequence of it, monasticism, sanyasa, asceticism, pacifism and 

withdrawal from life are rejected, and a householder’s life is accepted 

as the forum of spiritual activities and growth. Logically, monasticism 

and celibacy go together, and Guru Nanak categorically rejected both 

of them. Obviously, God’s qualities of being ‘Shelter to the shelterless’, 

‘Milk to the child’, ‘Riches to the poor’, and ‘Eyes to the blind’, 9 can 

be expressed by the Godman only by being a householder and 

participating in all walks of life, and not by withdrawing from them. 

The fourth difference follows as a corollary to this and to the rejection 

of celibacy, namely, equality between man and woman. 

In contrast, we find that in life-negating systems, and more 

especially in the Indian systems, the position on all these four points is 

essentially different. For them, life is far from real or an arena of 

spiritual endeavours. The spiritual path and the worldly path are 

considered separate and distinct. Whether it is Vedanta, Jainism, 

Buddhism, Vaisnavism or Nathism, asceticism, monasticism, ahimsa, 

sanyasa or withdrawal from life into bhikshuhood is the normal course. 

In consequence, celibacy is the rule, and woman is deemed to be a 

temptress. Dighambra Jains believe that a woman cannot reach kaivalya 

(spiritual summit), and has first to achieve male incarnation. 10 In 

Buddhism, woman bhikshus are deemed second grade compared to 

male bhikshus who are considered senior to them. 11 A male bhikshu is 

not supposed to touch and rescue a drowning woman, even if she 

were his mother. 12 Sankara calls woman ‘the gateway to hell.’ 13 Both 

Ramanuja and Shankaradeva (a liberal Vaisnava saint) would not admit 

a woman to be a Vaisnava. 14 The latter stated, “Of all the terrible 

aspirations of the world, woman is the ugliest. A slight side glance of 

hers captivates even the hearts of celebrated sages. Her sight destroys 

prayer, penance and meditation. Knowing this, the wise keep away 

from the company of woman.” 15 Bhagat Kabir, we know, is considered 

a misogynist and calls woman ‘black cobra’, ‘pit of hell’ and ‘the refuse 

of the world.’ 16 It is well-known that even today in Catholic 

Christianity, a woman is not ordained as a priest. Against this, Guru 

Nanak not only sanctioned a householder’s life but stated as to, “How 

can a woman be called impure, when without woman there would be 

none.” 17 

All this has been explained to stress that the basic perceptions 

about the nature of the spiritual experience and the ontological

18 

Reality being different, the spiritual paths, under the two categories 

of systems, become automatically divergent. 

Further, the acceptance of a householder’s life has important 

empirical and socio-political implications. Except for Guru Harkrishan, 

who died at an early age, every Guru married and led a householder’s 

life. By way of demonstration, this step was essential, otherwise, the 

entire Indian tradition being different, Guru Nanak’s system would 

have been completely misunderstood and misinterpreted. We are well 

aware that it is the Naths who questioned Guru Nanak as to how 

incongruous it was that he was, wearing the clothes of a householder, 

and at the same time claiming to follow the religious path. Guru 

Nanak’s reply was equally cryptic and categoric, when he said that the 

Naths did not know even the elementaries of the spiritual path. 18 For 

this very reason, the Guru did not make his son, Baba Sri Chand, a 

recluse, his successor. 

Regarding the fifth important difference about the goal of life of the 

religious man, Guru Nanak has made the position very clear in his 

Japuji. After putting a specific question as to what is the way to be a 

sachiara or a true man, the Guru, while clearly rejecting the method of 

observing silence, coupled with continuous concentration or 

meditation, replies that the right method and goal are to carry out the 

Will of God. 19 And, God being Love and the Ocean of Virtues, His 

Will is Altruistically Creative and Dynamic. The Sikh goal of life is, 

thus, to be active and live a creative life of love and virtues. The goal 

is not personal salvation, or merger in Brahman, but an ever active life 

of love. It is in this context that Guru Nanak gives the call, “If you 

want to play the game of love, then come to my path with your head 

on your palm; once you set your foot on this way, then find not a way 

out and be prepared to lay down your head.” 20 For him, life is a game 

of love. It is significant that the same advice was given by Guru 

Arjun to Bhai Manjh who was then a Sakhi Sarvarya and wanted to be 

a Sikh of the Guru, “You may go on with the easy path of Sakhi 

Sarvar worship, because Sikhism is a very difficult path, and unless 

you are willing to be dispossessed of your wealth and to sacrifice your 

very life, it is no use coming to me.” 21 Exactly, the same call for total 

commitment and sacrifice was given by Guru Gobind Singh on the 

Baisakhi Day, 1699, when he created the Khalsa and administered 

amrit to the Panj Piaras. 

The goal being different, the sixth implication is as to the

19 

method to achieve that goal. In Sikhism, the emphasis is on the 

methodology of deeds. Guru Nanak has made this point very clear 

when he says in Japuji : “Man’s assessment in His court is done on the 

basis of one’s deeds”, 22 and “It is by one’s deeds that we become near 

or away from God.” 23 In order to stress the fundamental spiritual 

importance of deeds, Guru Nanak says, “Everything is lower than 

Truth, but higher still is truthful living.” 24 In fact, when the Guru 

defines the gurmukh or the superman, he calls him : ‘One who always 

lives truthfully.” 

Essentials of Sikh Life and Its Differences with Other Systems in Matters 

of Social ResponsibilityEssentials of Sikh Life and Its Differences with Other 

Systems in Matters of Social Responsibility 

The basic difference between a whole-life system and a 

dichotomous system is that in the former, every field of life of operation 

of God, is also the field of operation and responsibility of both the 

Godman and the seeker. This is the broad approach. Having defined 

the nature of God and the goal of man, the important issue is what 

are the essentials of the religious life. In the context explained above, 

Guru Nanak has fixed specific duties and responsibilities of the 

religious life. The first is of accepting equality between man and 

woman. Guru Nanak clearly states, “Why downgrade woman, when 

without woman there would be none”, 25 and “It is she who gives birth 

to great persons.” 26 When the Third Guru created manjis or districts of 

religious administration, women were appointed in charge of some of 

them. 27 The second responsibility is of maintaining equality between 

man and man. This was a direct blow to the social ideology of Varn 

Ashram Dharma which gave scriptural sanction to the hierarchical caste 

system. Guru Nanak found fault with that ideology saying, “The Vedas 

make a wrong distinction of caste”, 28 and “One cannot be a Yogi by 

mere wishing, real Yoga lies in treating all alike.” 29 He demonstrated 

the primary importance of treating all as equal by taking, after his 

enlightenment, Mardana, a low caste Muslim, as his life companion. 

This meant a total departure from the then existing religious prejudices, 

not only against lower castes, but also against Muslims who were 

regarded as malechhas. He made it clear that any one wanting to join 

his society, had, at the very start, to shed all prejudices against interreligious 

or inter-caste dining and social intercourse. The revolutionary 

character of this step could be gauged from the fact that a Ramanuja 

would throw the entire food as polluted, if any one cast a glance on it 

while he had been preparing or eating it. 30

20 

The third social responsibility, Guru Nanak emphasises, is the 

importance of work. This too, we find, was something opposed to the 

then prevalent religious practice. Evidently, other-worldliness, sanyasa 

and monasticism excluded the religious necessity of work and sustaining 

the society. In fact, the Naths who were then the principal religious 

organisation in Punjab took a vow never to engage themselves in any 

work or business. 31 But Guru Nanak says, “The person incapable of 

earning his living gets his ears split (i.e., turns a Nath Yogi) and 

becomes a mendicant. He calls himself a Guru or saint. Do not 

look up to him, nor touch his feet. He knows the way who earns 

his living and shares his earnings with others.” 32 The Guru 

deprecates the Yogi who gives up the world, and then is not 

ashamed of begging at the door of the householders. 33 The fourth 

social responsibility Guru Nanak stresses is about the sharing of 

wealth. He states, “God’s bounty belongs to all, but men grab it 

for themselves.” 34 “Man gathers riches by making others 

miserable.” 35 “Wealth cannot be gathered without sin, but it does 

not keep one’s company after death.” 36 All this clearly condemns 

exploitative collection of wealth. The story of Guru Nanak 

rejecting the invitation of Malik Bhago, a rich person exploiting 

the poor, but accepting the hospitality of Lalo, a poor labourer, 

illustrates the same point as stressed in his bani. Thus, the twin 

ideas about the brotherhood of man and the sharing of wealth to 

eliminate poverty and maintain equality in society are stressed by 

Guru Nanak. Even after his missionary tours, Guru Nanak took 

to the role of a peasant for the last 18 years of his life. It is 

significant that till the time of the Sixth Guru, when social and 

military duties of the leadership and organisation of the Sikh society 

became quite heavy and absorbing, every Sikh Guru had been doing 

a vocation or business to support his family. 

The fifth social responsibility, where Guru Nanak radically 

departed from all the contemporary religious systems, including Sufism, 

Santism and Christianity, was his approach towards injustice and 

oppression of all kinds in society. He made a meticulous study of 

injustice and corruption, aggression and incongruity in every field of 

life. He pointed out the greed and hypocrisy of Brahmin priests and 

Mullahs, the ‘blood thirsty corruption’ and injustice by lower and 

higher-rung officials in the administration, the misrule, oppression and 

irresponsibility of the local rulers, their inability to give security, fairplay 

and peace to the people, and brutal and barbaric butchery of the people.

21 

All this was not just idle rhetoric, but a diagnostic assessment of the 

prevailing turmoil and conditions in the society, which the Guru felt, 

needed to be changed. It needs to be emphasised that in Guru Nanak’s 

ideology, there was nothing like private or personal salvation. Just as God 

of Love is benevolently looking after the entire world, in the same way, 

the Godman’s sphere of activity and responsibility is equally wide, and is 

unhedged by any self-created barriers. This is, as we shall see, a fundamental 

difference between a salvation religion catering for individuals, and a 

universal religion catering for the spiritual well-being of society as a whole. 

Here it is very relevant to give, as recorded by Bertrand Russell, 

the contrasted approach of St Augustine, one of the greatest exponents 

of the Christian gospel and author of City of God. Russell concludes : 

“It is strange that the last men of intellectual eminence before the 

dark ages were concerned, not with saving civilization or expelling the 

barbarians or reforming the abuses of the administration, but with 

preaching the merit of virginity and the damnation of unbaptized 

infants. Seeing that these were the preoccupations that the Church 

handed on to the converted barbarians, it is no wonder that the 

succeeding age surpassed almost all other fully historical periods in 

cruelty and superstition.” 37 Whereas Guru Nanak meticulously points 

out every dark spot in the religious and socio-political life of his times, 

St Augustine is simply unconcerned with socio-political conditions of 

his period. For, “Augustine’s City of God (426) attacked both Christians 

who expected the world to get better and pagans with a cyclic view of 

history. Augustine did not believe that the spread of Christianity would 

ensure political and economic improvement. The earthly city of self-will 

would continue to exist amidst the rise and fall of states and empires.” 38 

Another important fact is Guru Nanak’s criticism in Babar Vani 

of the brutalities and massacres perpetrated and misery caused by the 

invaders. He condemns them in the strongest terms and complains to 

God for allowing the weak to be trampled upon by the strong. 39 This 

hymn has an extremely important lesson, which many of us have missed. 

For, anything which is within the sphere of His creation and the 

responsibility of God, is certainly within the sphere of responsibility 

of the Godman. The hymn has four implications; first, that injustice 

and oppression are violative of the Order of God; second, that as the 

Master and God of Love, harmony has to be maintained by His Will; 

third, that, as the instrument of God, it is the spiritual duty and 

responsibility of the Godman to confront all kinds of injustice; and, 

fourth, that, as such, resistance to oppression was a task and a target 

laid down by the Guru for the religious society he was organising.

22 

It is Guru Nanak who defines God as ‘Destroyer of the evildoers’, 

40 ‘Destroyer of demoniacal persons’, 41 ‘Slayer of the inimical’, 42 

and ‘Protector of the weak.’ Such being the God of Guru Nanak, it is 

equally the responsibility of the Godman, gurmukh, or the Sikh to carry 

out His Will which is just and altruistic. In short, in Guru Nanak’s 

system to ensure equality and fair play and to react against injustice 

and aggression, become the religious duty and responsibility of the 

Sikh. Since the dawn of civilisation, the greatest oppression and 

injustice have undeniably been done by the rulers, the State, or the 

Establishment who have possessed all the instruments of power and 

coercion. It is impossible for individuals to confront such power. This 

leads to two important inferences. First, that in a whole-life system 

like Sikhism, which combines spiritual life with the empirical life of 

man and accepts the miri-piri doctrine, the religious man must, as a 

religious duty, resist and confront injustice, wherever it takes place. 

Second, that such a religious man should not only be cognizant 

of such injustice, but also organise a society that should be in a position 

to face the challenge of such injustice and oppression. This follows 

logically both from Guru Nanak’s bani and his system. This also 

explains why from the very beginning of his mission, he started 

organising the Sikh societies at places which he visited and how the 

societies were logically linked and developed by his successors into 

the Panth. These aspects are very significant and important about his 

society and religion. It is obvious to every student of the Adi Granth 

that so far as the ideology is concerned, it had been completely laid 

down in the bani of Guru Nanak. But what was lacking was the 

presence of a properly motivated and responsible society that should 

be in a position to successfully discharge the responsibility of reacting 

against injustice and oppression prevalent in his times. 

There is another important and related issue. Having cast on his 

society the responsibility of confronting injustice, again it is Guru 

Nanak who eliminates the hurdle of ahimsa or pacificism that stood as 

a bar against the religious man or a religious society trying to confront 

socio-political aggression. Among Vaisnavas, Jains, Buddhist 

Bhikshus, Naths, or Radical Sants like Kabir, ahimsa is deemed to be a 

cardinal virtue and meat eating is a prohibition. These religious persons 

are all from life-negating systems, with personal salvation as the ideal. 

But a society that has to accept the social responsibility of confronting 

injustice cannot remain wedded to the hurdle of ahimsa. For, reason 

and force are

23 

both neutral tools that can be used both for good and evil, for 

construction and destruction. That is why Guru Nanak says, 

“Men discriminate not and quarrel over meat eating, they do not 

know what is flesh and what is non-flesh, or in what lies sin and 

what is not sin”, 43 and that “there is life in every grain of food 

we eat.” 44 

Role of Later Nine GurusRole of Later Nine Gurus: In a country, 

which for over 2000 years had been trained in religious systems 

involving clear dichotomy between spiritual and empirical life, and 

which had accepted ahimsa as a fundamental value and individual 

salvation as an ideal, it was no easy task to create a mature society 

with the new motivation of religious responsibility of always fighting 

injustice and oppression in all spheres of life. 

It is very significant that Guru Nanak laid the foundations of 

every institution that was later developed and matured by his 

successors. By starting the institution of langar (common kitchen) 

and taking Mardana as his life companion, he gave a heavy blow to 

the divisive institution of Varn Ashram Dharma, pollution and caste. 

He created a separate Sikh society with their own dharmasalas as centres 

of religious worship and training. He sanctified the role of the 

householder as the medium of religious expression and progress, and 

made it plain that work was a necessity of life, and idleness a vice. He 

emphatically made it clear that to fight injustice and oppression is an 

essential duty of the religious man and the religious society. For that 

end, while he created a new society with a new ideology, he also 

removed the hurdle of ahimsa, so that his society could discharge 

its socio-religious responsibility without any unwanted inhibitions 

and impediments in its path. And since the new society had not 

yet been fully organised and developed, and had yet to be properly 

oriented to enable it to discharge its responsibilities, he also created 

the institution of succession. It is very significant of the social 

and societal aims of Guru Nanak that after passing the succession 

to Guru Angad, when he found him to be living a somewhat solitary 

life, he reminded him that he had to be active since he had to 

organise a society or Panth. 45 

In the time of the Second, Third and Fourth Guru, four important 

steps were taken. Through the creation of 22 manjis or districts of 

religious administration, the Sikh society was organised into a separate 

religious Panth. But, the most important and difficult part of the task 

was the creation of new motivations and the acceptance of the new

24 

life-affirming religious ideals of Guru Nanak. For, these were radically 

new in their approach, implications and goals. The stupendous nature 

of the task of the Gurus can be judged from the fact that even 

today great Hindus, like Jadunath Sarkar, Rabindra Nath Tagore 

and Mahatma Gandhi, and Christians like McLeod, Cole, Toynbee 

and the like, all coming from pacifist traditions and conditioned by 

them, find it difficult to understand the spiritual role of the Sixth 

and the Tenth Master. 

The Third Guru created new institutions which had the dual 

purpose of weaning the Sikhs away from the old Hindu society 

and of conditioning them in new values, ideals and practices. For 

example, while Guru Nanak had bypassed his recluse son, Sri 

Chand, for the same reasons, the Second and the Third Guru avoided 

persons of ascetic tendencies from entering the Sikh fold. The 

institution of langar, with the dual purpose of feeding the poor and of 

eliminating the caste and status prejudices and distinctions, was 

strengthened. Finally, the important religious centre of Darbar Sahib 

and the town of Amritsar were founded and developed for the 

periodical meetings of the Sikh society and visits of the Sikhs to the 

Guru. The object of all this was to establish a separate historical 

identity of the Sikhs and to wean them away from the traditional society, 

its centres of pilgrimage, and its religious practices and rituals. Not 

only had they to be trained in the essentials of a new religious system, 

but they had to be taken out of the strangle-hold of the Brahmin 

priests claiming to be the sole medium of religious growth, practice 

and interpretation. 

Then came the stage of the Fifth Guru who created and installed 

the Sikh Scripture as the revealed and final doctrinal authority. The 

system of daswandh (giving 10% of one’s earnings for the cause of the 

community) was organised. Sikhs were initiated into trading in horses, 

so that the transition to the next stage of militancy could become 

smooth. As the instrument of God on earth, the Sikhs called their 

Guru, ‘True Emperor.’ In the time of the Fifth Guru, the Sikh society 

had become ‘a State within a State’, 46 and had developed a social 

identity which had caught the eye of the Emperor, who considered it 

an unwanted socio-political growth. By his martyrdom, the Guru not 

only strengthened the faith and determination of the community, but 

also sought confrontation with the Empire, leaving instructions to his 

son to begin militarisation of the Sikhs. In the process, the Sixth 

Guru even recruited mercenaries to train his people. This phase of

25 

martyrdom and confrontation with the Empire was continued by the 

subsequent Gurus till Guru Gobind Singh did, as recorded by his 

contemporary Kavi Sainapat, the epitomic work of starting the 

institutions of amrit and the Khalsa. 47 Having felt that the Panth 

had become mature and responsible enough, the Guru created the 

Khalsa in 1699, and requested the Panj Piaras to baptise him. 48 It 

is significant that at that time all the Guru’s sons were alive, 

meaning thereby that Guru Nanak’s mission had been completed 

and thereafter the succession was not to be continued. And, finally, 

the Guru made Guru Granth Sahib the Everlasting Guru of the 

Sikhs. 49 

Let us have a rapid look back to find out if the five tasks indicated 

by Guru Nanak had been accomplished. First, the Sikhs had been 

formed into a distinct new religious society with a Scripture of its 

own, being the full repository and complete and final guide of the 

Sikh ideology and its way of life. This separateness was made 

total by Guru Gobind Singh’s Nash doctrine of five freedoms — 

Dharam Nash, Bharam Nash, Kul Nash, Karam Nash and Kirt Nash. 50 

This means freedom from the bonds of old religions and traditions, 

of earlier superstitions and prejudices, of earlier acts and of 

restrictions in choice of trade or calling, or in professional mobility. 

The Tenth Master made a complete break with the earlier traditions 

and societies. Second, it was a society of householders, rejecting 

all kinds of otherworldliness, idleness and monasticism. Third, it 

was a casteless society with complete fraternity among its members. 

Men from the lowest and Sudra castes rose to be its leaders. The 

contrast is evident from the fact that while the Sikhs have never had 

Brahmin leaders, in India after Independence in 1947, the Prime 

Minister and practically every Chief Minister was a Brahmin. Four, it 

was a society which was fully earthaware; and habits of work, 

production and service became ingrained among its members. 

Begging was considered a disgrace in its social ethos. The fifth 

social responsibility discharged by the Sikhs was to free the country 

from the curse of a thousand-year wave of invaders from the North- 

West. Though the Sikhs were subjected over the years to the worst 

persecution in Indian history, yet they suffered it and emerged 

triumphant. And, finally, they were able once and for all to stem 

that tide. They have been trained to react against wrong, injustice 

and oppression. A society has been created with the ideal of a 

Sant-Sipahi (Saint-Soldier).

26 

Manmukh to Gurmukh : The Guru’s Concept of evolution of Man : 

Here, it is necessary to state the manmukh-gurmukh concept, which is 

essential for understanding the Sikh worldview. As the Gurus say, 

over millions of years life has evolved into man from a tiny speck of 

life. The Guru says, “For several births (you) were a mere worm, 

for several births, an insect, for several births a fish and an 

antelope”, “After ages you have the glory of being a man.” 51 “After 

passing through myriads of species, one is blest with the human 

form.” 52 “God created you out of a drop of water and breathed 

life in you. He endowed you with the light of reason, discrimination 

and wisdom.” 53 “O man, you are supreme in God’s creation; now 

is your opportunity, you may fulfil or not fulfil your destiny.” 54 At 

its present stage of development, man is, without doubt, better 

equipped than other animals, in so far as he has a higher sense of 

discrimination. But, as an ego-conscious being, he is still an animal, 

being a manmukh. This implies that whatever be human pretensions, 

man is basically and organically a self-centred being. His psyche is 

governed by an egoistic consciousness, that being his centre of 

awareness, control and propulsion. Because of his present inherent 

limitations of egoconsciousness, it is virtually impossible for man 

to avoid conflict, aggression, and wars. But the Gurus clearly hold 

out hope for man. There are four stages of evolution or 

development. The Guru says, “God created first, Himself, then 

haumain, third, maya (multifarious things and beings) and fourth, the 

next higher stage of the gurmukh who lives truthfully.” 55 The Gurus 

clearly say that it is human destiny to reach the fourth stage and to 

meet God, or to be a gurmukh , or one who is in tune with the 

fundamental Reality or Universal Consciousness, God, Naam, or 

Love. His ideal is not merger in God or salvation, or union as an 

end in itself. Being the instrument of, or in touch with God’s 

Altruistic Consciousness, he is spontaneously benevolent, 

compassionate, creative and loving. It is very important to note 

that the gurmukh or superman is not a quietist, he ‘lives truthfully.’ 

He lives as did the ten Gurus. For, Guru Nanak was called just a 

gurmukh. This is the next higher stage of evolution towards which 

life is striving and not towards darkness and death as materialist 

scientists would have us believe. Nor does Sikhism accept any 

concept of the basic sinfulness or fall of man from grace. It only 

indicates the constitutional weakness, immaturity or imperfection

27 

of man at his present stage of the evolutionary process or 

development. Hence, it gives us an ideology of optimism and hope, 

invoking and exhorting us to make moral effort. 

Survey of Higher Religions Survey of Higher Religions 

Before we draw our conclusions, let us make a brief survey of 

some religious ideologies of the world and find the place of Sikhism 

among them. There are four clear religious ideologies that are current 

today. 

Dichotomous ReligionsDichotomous Religions 

First is the category of religious systems like Buddhism, Jainism, 

Nathism, Vaisnavism and Vedanta, in which there is clear dichotomy 

between the spiritual life and the empirical life. Monasticism, sanyasa, 

otherworldliness, celibacy, yogic meditation and ahimsa are the common 

but important features of this category. They hold out no hope for 

man, except by withdrawal from life and yogic or one-point meditation. 

In each case, it is a path of personal salvation without any involvement 

in the socio-political affairs of man. Practically, all the Indian religions, 

except Sikhism, belong to this category. 

JudaismJudaism 

Second is Judaism which has a long and chequered history. 

Basically, it is a system in which there is no dichotomy between the 

religious life and the empirical life of man. Prophet Moses who got 

the revelation, was both a religious and political leader. His Torah or 

Commandments and Laws prescribe and govern the entire gamut of 

the spiritual and temporal life of the Jews. It is a system that prescribes 

rules governing the conduct of prayer, rituals, sacrifices and their sociopolitical 

life. The renowned Hillel when asked to explain the 613 

commandments of the Torah, replied, “Whatever is hateful to you, do 

not do to your neighbour. That is the entire Torah. The rest is 

commentary, go and learn it.” 56 In short, it is basically a life-affirming 

system. It makes no distinction between the spiritual and the sociopolitical 

life of man. The Torah governs every aspect of it. As to the 

means of resistance, Judaism recommends the use of force by saying, 

“Eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth”, and indicates rules for a righteous 

fight. 57 But, over its long history including the period of the prophets, 

this aspect of its principle has, to an extent, been altered, or changed 

at least by some sects of the community. At the time of the Babylonian 

attack (Sixth Century B.C.) on Palestine, Prophet Jeremiah strongly

28 

recommended non-resistance or pacificism. He asserted that the attack 

was God’s punishment to the Jews for their non-observance of His 

Laws. 58 His assertion was something like Mahatma Gandhi’s statement 

that the Bihar earthquake was a punishment to the Hindus for their 

practice of untouchability. However, over the centuries thereafter, 

many religious sects of Jews like Essenes, Kabbalists, Hasidists, 

Therapeutics, 59 and even some Pharisees accepted the principle of 

non-resistance, pacificism, withdrawal and otherworldliness. Even 

monastic and celibate cults appeared among Jews, discarding both the 

world and the use of force. This important change, in a basic religious 

principle, we believe, came about in this religion in later parts of its 

history, when Judaism was unable to cope with challenges from the 

socio-political environment, and their religious fervour had been 

exhausted. Practically, all these otherworldly sects appeared after the 

destruction of the First Temple and the fall of Jerusalem, when 

thousands of Jews were driven out as exiles and slaves to Babylonia. 

We wish to stress that these fundamental changes in Judaic ideology, 

including otherworldly or monastic sects, appeared only during the 

lean period of Jewish history. This happened about eight centuries 

after the revelation of Moses, and after the heydays of Jewish life in 

the times of David and Solomon. But, it is very significant that despite 

the presence of somewhat pacifist or otherworldly cults and sects in 

Judaism, and despite about 2500 years of suffering and travail, the 

idea of Zionism, a virtual revival of earlier non-pacifist ideals, strongly 

reappeared in Judaism in the last century. And it is an important fact 

that Einstein, who says that his life was spent ‘between politics and 

equations’ was a staunch Zionist. So much so, that when Israel was 

formed he was offered its presidency. 60 However, apart from this 

apparent doctrinal ambivalence in its ideology, Judaism is a highly 

exclusive religion, not quite universal in its character, affinities and 

approach. 

Christianity :The Judaic heritage of Christianity is undoubted. As 

in Judaism, in Christianity, too, there is, in principle, no dichotomy 

between the spiritual life and the empirical life of man. For, Christ 

emphasises both loving God with all one’s heart, and loving one’s 

neighbour as oneself. 61 But like Buddha, he also emphasises the pacifist 

principles, ‘resist not evil’ and ‘turn the left cheek if hit on the right.’ 

Religious history demonstrates that pacifist religions almost invariably 

become otherworldly, even if they were life-affirming in the beginning. 

Because of their religious pacificism, the Christians declined to take 

up service in the Roman army. In fact, historians like Gibbon and Sir

29 

James Frazer have mentioned Christian otherworldliness as one of 

the major causes of the fall of the Roman Empire. 62 It is obvious that 

Christianity, which, like Judaism, was a religion of householders, 

showed, by the beginning of the 4th century AD, clear monastic 

trends. 63 Increasingly, monasteries and nunneries appeared as a 

significant development in the Christian religion. This life of 

monasticism, asceticism and nunneries led, on the one hand, to 

otherworldly quietist mysticism, and, on the other hand, to corruption 

and malpractices in the Catholic Church. 

Consequent to this schism in the life of the Christian Church, 

ultimately arose the Reformation, causing a major blow to the 

supremacy of the Church and its role as the guiding moral force in the 

life of the Christian society. Lutheran and Calvinist reforms not only 

shattered the universal character of the Church, but also brought about 

its subordination to the national State. In addition, because of Luther’s 

leanings towards the feudal princes, he took a very hostile and 

feudalistic stand against the rights of the peasantry. This landslide in 

the fortunes of the Church caused its gradual waning as a major moral 

influence in the socio-political life of the Christian societies. After 

the rise of science, which was considered to be the new elixir, it came 

to be believed that it would, in course of time, cure most human ills. 

The net result is that in the last 300 years, Renaissance, scientism, 

empiricism and secularism have virtually eliminated religion from the 

moral life of man in the West. 

Toynbee says, “This transfer of allegiance from the Western 

Christian Church to the parochial Western secular state was given a 

positive form borrowed from the Graeco-Roman civilization by the 

Renaissance.” “This unavowed worship of parochial states was by 

far the most prevalent religion in the Christian society.” 64 Since the 

loss of supremacy of religion in the Christian society, Western life has 

lost its moral moorings. Nationalism, communism and individualism 

have been the unstable offsprings of this broken home. “Together 

with Darwinism, secularism and positivism, they have dehumanised 

the Western culture, reducing liberalism to a self-serving, highly 

competetive individualism.” 65 By relegating religion to the background 

and having lost the moral springs of the Western culture, either 

utilitarian ethics has been accepted as an expedient substitute or a 

reductionist search has been made to find appropriate ethical elements 

in the life of the animals, or in the material base of man which is 

considered to be its fundamental constituent. And this search has 

finally come to the dismal conclusion that all ethical life is ‘a defence

30 

mechanism’ or a ‘reaction formation’ to the impacts of the environment. 

After the Second World War, a third of the population of the world 

was living under the Communist system. As the century is closing, 

these countries find that despite the myth of dialectical movement 

and synthesis, the system has been unable to make any synthetic values 

or devise a system of ethics which is able to maintain cohesion within 

these societies. And it is the existence of this moral vacuum that 

made the Foreign Secretary of the Soviets proclaim that ‘universal 

values should have priority over class, group or other interests.’ 66 The 

warning remained unheeded, and the Russian Empire has collapsed, 

purely because of its inability to build internal cohesion. At the ethical 

plane, this decries, in a way, the validity of Darwinism, and its struggle 

for existence, and Marxism with its dialectical movement of class 

struggle. It involves equal condemnation of economic wars, cut-throat 

competition, consumerism and increasing disparities in capitalist 

societies. 

From the point of view of internal cohesion, the position in the 

capitalist countries of the West is no better. Mounting number of 

divorces, broken homes, drug addiction, alcoholism, and individualism 

have created such a situation in North America, which made the 

Christian Church raised a strong voice saying that secularism was a 

common danger and needed to be eliminated as a social force, and 

that Christianity should seek the co-operation of other religions to 

combat its evil influence. Christianity had given to the empirical life 

in the West its cohesion, strength and elan; the divorce of religion 

from politics and the empirical life, has left secularism a barren 

institution without any hope of a creative future. This is the tragedy 

both of communism and capitalism. It is this tragedy with its dark 

future that the North American Churches wanted to avoid. But in the 

temper of the times, this voice of sanity was drowned in an exhibition 

of suicidal egoism of the European Churches who felt that 

“Secularization, not secularism, is the primary process. It is a process 

in which some of the values of Christian faith have been put into a 

secular framework, bringing about a powerful force which is destroying 

all old ideas. Hence, secularization is an ally, because it will destroy 

Hinduism, Islam and other forms of what they considered to be 

superstition. So, we should ally ourselves with secularization and see 

it as the work of God.” Later, it was again repeated : “We do not feel 

that we have anything lacking. And so we are opposed to dialogue 

unless it is for the sake of testifying to Jesus Christ.” “That was it. 

Then they passed a resolution saying that under no circumstances

31 

should multi-religious dialogues be undertaken because multi-religious 

dialogues put Christianity on the same level as other religions, and 

this is unacceptable. So, because the European Christians had that 

point of view, the World Council of Churches has not been able to 

engage in multi-religious dialogues for quite some time.” 67 

This is the state of affairs of the moral life of man in Western 

countries that lead the dominant culture of our times. Recently, 

however, some priests in Latin America have raised a voice for an 

integrated and composite culture of Liberation Theology, invoking 

the Bible in support of a revolutionary struggle to help the poor. Father 

C. Torres states, “The Catholic who is not a revolutionary is living in 

mortal sin.” 68 Theologian Moltmann says, “Political theology wants 

to awaken political consciousness in every treatise of Christian 

theology. Understood in this way, it is the premise that leads to the 

conclusion that, while there may be naive or politically unaware 

theology, there can be no apolitical theology.” He concludes, “The 

memory of Christ crucified compels us to a political theology.” 69 But 

these are still minority voices in the Christian world. 

IslamIslam 

Islam started with a full-blooded combination between the spiritual 

life and the empirical life of man. It is this combination that swept 

everything before it and created an epoch which is unrivalled in its 

achievements. It is a religious system and culture, which is, in many 

respects, more comprehensive and unified than the parochial culture 

of the city states of Greece. It is hardly complimentary to the Christian 

world of the West that while today it seeks to fashion many of its 

cultural institutions on the basis of Greek classical models, yet these, 

but for the interlude of the Islamic epoch which preserved most of 

the Greek thought, would have been lost to posterity. Never was the 

concept of human brotherhood advanced, in thought and deed, on a 

scale as during this epoch. It speaks volumes for the liberalism of 

Islamic culture that the heydays of the Judaic literature, philosophy 

and thought synchronise with the countries and periods of Islamic 

rule. Not only were some of the Jewish classics written, but 

Maimonides, the king of Judaic philosophy, also flourished and wrote 

during the Muslim rule. As against it, under Christian rulers, the Jews 

suffered periodical massacres, persecution and the segregated life of 

the ghetto. Admittedly, the Muslim rulers were, by comparison, quite 

liberal towards the followers of other religions. Islamic contribution

32 

to the scientific thought of the day was significant. But far more 

important is the contribution of men like Al Qushairi, Al Ghazali and 

Arbi to the religious thought of man. 

There is, however, little doubt that mystic quietism and 

otherworldliness of Sufis is a growth that appeared during the time of 

later Caliphs, when they indulged in luxurious and un-Islamic living. 

It has happened in the case of Judaism and of Islam, both whole-life 

religions, that in times when religiously sensitive souls found it difficult 

to face the social or socio-political challenges, they withdrew 

themselves into the shell of quietism, otherworldliness, monasticism 

and asceticism. Sufi sects appeared all over the Muslim world, but 

they never posed a challenge to the oppression and misrule of the 

Muslim emperors or kings. In this respect, the Jewish prophets were 

quite bold in their criticism of Jewish rulers, including David and 

Solomon. 

It is very significant, and shows the lofty spiritual status of the 

Sikh Gurus and the basic ideological affinity between the two religions, 

that a Sufi saint like Pir Buddhu Shah fought and sacrificed two of his 

sons for the cause of Guru Gobind Singh. 70 But it was the Sikh 

Gurus and not the Sufis who challenged the growing Mughal tyranny. 

This instance demonstrates that although as an organisation, Sufis 

had become otherworldly and failed to confront the major challenge 

of societal oppression in the Muslim empires, yet when the Sikh Gurus 

had actually taken up the challenge and the ideological struggle was 

on, the Sufi saint made it clear that, considering the tenets of Islam, 

on which side should be the sympathies of a pious person. 

There are, however, some scholars like Iqbal and Abdus Salam 

who believe that like the otherworldliness of the Christians, as in the 

case of the Roman Empire, Sufis also became a significant cause of 

the decline of the Muslim cultural supremacy in the world. For, there 

is considerable truth in Dr Mohammad Iqbal’s couplet : “Whether it 

be the facade of a great republic, or the domain of a glorious empire, 

if its polity is divorced of the religious component, the system is 

reduced to sheer Changezian barbarity and tyranny.” Thoughtful and 

saner elements in the Muslim world seem to be disillusioned with the 

bankrupt Western Secularism, and are trying to revert to a reformed 

and composite culture of Islam. 

Religious History and Creation of the KhalsaReligious History and 

Creation of the Khalsa

33 

In our brief survey, we have indicated four categories of religious 

systems. The Indian systems are all dichotomous. To the second 

category belongs pacifist Christianity which, though it originally 

suggested the love of one’s neighbour as oneself, has gradually but 

ultimately reduced itself to sheer Secularism, Individualism and 

Consumerism, bereft of any religious component. To the third category 

belong Judaism and Islam which started with a full-blooded combination 

of the spiritual life with the empirical life, but ultimately, under pressure 

of circumstances, bifurcated, on the one hand, into otherworldliness 

or mystic quietism, and, on the other hand, into the pursuit of worldly 

gains and sheer animal survival. 

Sikhism belongs to a different or a fourth category of the religious 

systems. For the purpose of understanding, clarity and comparison, it 

will help us if we recapitulate the salient features of Sikhism. The 

Gurus say that the Basic Reality is creative and free. It has a Direction 

and a Will. It is the Ocean of Values, Destroyer of evil-doers, 

Benevolent and Beneficent. That Reality is Love and we can be at 

peace with ourselves and the world only if we live a life of love and 

fall in line with the Direction of that Reality. Though ego is God 

created and man is at present at the ego-conscious (manmukh) stage of 

development, it is his destiny to evolve and reach the stage of Universal 

or God-consciousness and work in line with His Altruistic Will, i.e., 

achieve the gurmukh stage of development, when alone he can ‘be 

spontaneously moral’ and ‘live truthfully.’ At the present, or the egoistic 

stage of his development, man cannot avoid conflicts and suicidal 

wars. It is a futile search to try and find the moral base of man either 

in the animal life or in the material constituents of man. Nor can 

reason, which is just a tool of the egoistic psyche, like any other limb 

of the individual, devise and give man a helpful ethics. God or the 

Basic Reality, which is Love, can alone be the source of the moral life 

of man. Ultimately, it is only God or Naam-consciousness, involving 

link with the Basic Fount of Love, that can lead to truthful living. 

That is why the Guru says, “Naam-consciousness and egoconsciousness 

cannot go together.” 71 The two are contradictory to 

each other. It is a hymn of fundamental significance. For, egoconsciousness 

means man’s alienation from the basic Force of Love. 

And, greater the alienation or isolation of man from his spiritual and 

moral source, the greater would be his drive towards destruction. 

Secularism as an institution represents that egoistic isolation. This 

trend, the Guru says, is inconsistent with the path towards link with

34 

the Universal Consciousness, the spring of moral life. The Gurus 

have given a lead to man in this field. Ten Gurus or ten gurmukhs, 

lived the life of God-consciousness. In one sense, it is the life of one 

gurmukh completing a demonstration and furthering the progress of 

life and its spiritual evolution and ascent. Guru Nanak’s thesis involved 

the integration of the spiritual life of man with his empirical life. This 

integration has to enrich life and society. Because of the earlier cultural 

and religious tradition, it took ten lives for Guru Nanak, the gurmukh 

or Sant- Sipahi, to demonstrate his thesis and role, and discharge his 

social responsibilities. 

These socio-spiritual responsibilities involved not only the creation 

of a society motivated with new ideas, but also the completion of the 

five tasks Guru Nanak had indicated as targets before himself and his 

society. With every succeeding Guru, the ideal of gurmukh or Sant- 

Sipahi, as laid down and lived by Guru Nanak, unfolded itself 

progressively. It is a path of love, humility, service, sacrifice, 

martyrdom and total responsibility as the instrument of God, the basic 

Universal Consciousness moving the world. 

A question may be asked as to why there have been ten incarnations 

of Guru Nanak in Sikhism, while in other religions there have generally 

been only one prophet. To us, four reasons appear quite obvious. 

First, in a society in which dichotomous religions stand deeply 

embedded and established for over three thousand years and which 

claims to have contributed asceticism and monasticism to the cultures 

of the rest of the world, it was not easy for a whole-life religion with 

its miri-piri concept to be acceptable and take firm roots in one 

generation. Second, the Sikh ideology did not involve individual 

salvation, or a gurmukh just living truthfully; but it also involved 

compulsively the creation of a society motivated with new aspirations 

and ideals. And this new orientation and conditioning could be done 

only by the process of creating a new ideology, embodying it in a new 

scripture, organising new institutions, socio-religious practices and 

centres of the new faith, and inspiring people, by the method of 

martyrdoms, into accepting a new ethical standard or morality and 

values. For, as Ambedkar 72 and Max Weber have stated, the Hindu 

society cannot be reformed from inside, and rid itself from the unjust 

system of caste and untouchability, because the Varn Ashram Dharma 

has the sanction of Shashtras and scriptures; and a Hindu while making 

caste distinctions and exhibiting caste prejudices never feels any moral 

guilt or abhorrence. Instead, he feels a real sense of religious and

35 

moral satisfaction that he is observing his Dharma and Shastric 

injunctions. Hence, the inevitable necessity of creating a new ideology 

and Scripture with a new religious and socio-moral code of conduct. 

Third, even if the ideology and institutions had been there, the Sikh 

society would, like some reformed societies, soon have reverted to 

the parent society, if it had not successfully achieved the social targets 

discussed above, including those of creating a fraternal society of 

householders, of dislodging the political misrule, and sealing the North- 

Western gate of India against the invaders. 

The fourth reason appears to be very important. Our survey of the 

major religions of the world shows that revealed systems which start 

with a combination of the spiritual life with the empirical life and 

even with clear social objectives, over a period of time, either shed 

their social ideals and become pacifist, otherworldly, or a salvation 

religion, or become dichotomous, bifurcating, on the one hand, into 

monasticism, and, on the other hand, into either political misrule and 

tyranny or sheer secularism. Sikhism does not stand any such danger 

of ideological decline or bifurcation, because of its gradual and firm 

ascent and unfolding. It shows the prophetic vision of Guru Nanak 

that he not only profusely and clearly defined all aspects of his lifeaffirming 

and integrated ideology, but also detailed the targets his 

society had to achieve. He laid the firm foundations of the institutions 

and the socio-religious structure his successors had to develop and 

complete. Guru Nanak defined his God not only as the Ocean of 

Virtues, but also as a Sant-Sipahi or the Destroyer of the evil-doers; 

and the ideal he laid down for the seeker was to be the instrument of 

the Will of such a God. Guru Arjun gave instructions to his son to 

militarise the movement and thereafter, as was explained by Guru 

Hargobind to Sant Ramdas, 73 his sword was for the protection of the 

weak and the destruction of the tyrant. While Guru Arjun, the first 

martyr of the faith, had confrontation with the empire and gave orders 

for militarisation, the subsequent five Gurus manifestly proclaimed 

and practised the spiritual ideal of Sant-Sipahi. So, whatever some 

votaries of pacifist or dichotomous ideologies or other outsiders may 

say, to students of Sikhism or a seeker of the Sikh ideal, there can 

never be any doubt as to the integrated miri-piri or Sant-Sipahi ideal in 

Sikhism. Because in the eyes of a Sikh, any reversion to ideas of 

pacificism, personal salvation or monasticism would be a manifest fall 

from the spiritual ideology laid down by Guru Nanak, enshrined in 

Guru Granth Sahib, and openly, single-mindedly and demonstrably

36 

lived by the ten Gurus, culminating in the creation of the Khalsa, 

with kirpan as the essential symbol for resisting injustice and oppression. 

The kirpan essentially signifies two fundamental tenets of Sikhism, 

namely, that it is the basic responsibility of a Sikh to confront and 

resist injustice, and that asceticism, monasticism, or escapism, of any 

kind is wrong. Thus, the kirpan, on the one hand, is a constant reminder 

to the Sikh of his duty, and, on the other hand, is a standing guard 

against reversion to pacificism and otherworldliness. The extreme 

sagacity and vision of the Sikh Gurus is evident from the thoughtfully 

planned and measured manner in which they built the structure of 

their ideology and the Sikh society, epitomised in the order of the 

Khalsa. That is also the reason that so far as the ideology and ideals 

of the Sikh society are concerned, there cannot be any ambiguity in 

that regard. Hence, considering the manner in which the lives of the 

ten Gurus have demonstrated the Sikh way of life, the question of its 

bifurcation or accepting pacificism or otherworldliness does not arise. 

And this forms, we believe, the fourth important reason for there being 

ten Gurus and the closure of succession after the Khalsa was created. 

ConclusionConclusion 

The summary of the Sikh ideology, in the background of the 

religious history of some higher religions, makes the viewpoint of the 

Sikh Gurus and the Sikh position very clear. The Gurus emphasise 

that at the manmukh stage of man’s development, man is 

constitutionally incapable of avoiding injustice, wars and conflicts. 

Because, man is basically egocentric and stands alienated from the 

Fundamental Force (God) which is Love. So long as he does not link 

himself with the Flow of Love and fails to work in unison with it, his 

problems of clash, disharmony and tensions will continue. The 

diagnosis of the authors of Limits of Growth is also the same, namely, 

that unless man is able to shed his egocentrism, there appears little 

hope for peace and happiness in the world. 74 

The state is an instrument devised by man to curb the basic 

egocentrism or wickedness of individuals and power groups. But, 

politics divorced from the Fundamental Spiritual Force, or moral brakes 

creates the situation that the State or Establishment is seized by 

individuals and groups, who openly use and employ all the enormous 

means of the modern state for the satisfaction of their egocentrism, 

working to the detriment of the masses and the poor. And the more

37 

backward or poor a country, the greater the oppression uninhibited 

secularism can do with the power machine of the state. The result, 

logically and unavoidably, is that the gap between the downtrodden 

masses and the oppressive elites goes on widening. This happens both 

within a state, and among the various national states. We wonder if 

anyone who is acquainted with recent history, can contradict this 

observation. 

Rationally speaking, secularism is incapable of reversing the 

present trend, or finding a solution of the existing malady. The causes 

for this failure have been stressed by the Gurus. Reason being a tool 

or limb of the egocentric man (manmukh) and being unconnected with 

the Universal Consciousness or spirituo-moral base of man, it can 

never make the individual spontaneously altruistic. Hence, any search 

for a humanitarian ethics through empiricism, communism or secularism 

is doomed to failure. The hopes which science in the first decades of 

the century had raised, stand tragically shattered. 

To us, materialism and morality seem a contradiction in terms. 

Similarly, dichotomous or life-negating religions are equally amoral in 

their social impact. It is because of the Indian religions being 

dichotomous that the unjust secular institution of Varn Ashram Dharma 

and caste could continue in the Indian society, and also have the 

approval of its scriptures. The study of the three Western religions 

of Judaism, Christianity and Islam also furnishes the same lesson. The 

moment any of these societies became otherworldly, or showed 

dichotomous tendencies, the moral strength of the society to face the 

challenges of life became minimal. Or vice versa, the society became 

dichotomous, when it failed to face effectively the challenges of life. 

And, ultimately it is the moral stamina of a people or culture that by 

and large determines its survival. This is evident from the known 

history, both of Judaism and Islam. But for the subordination of 

religious institutions to the national state, following the Reformation, 

the triumph of secularism and scientism to erode the Christian ethical 

base from the Western life would never have been possible. The ethical 

field today is in complete disarray. 75 Since religion is the only source 

which could furnish the moral sap to maintain social cohesion, and 

Christian elan being at its lowest ebb, the twentieth century has 

witnessed the worst slaughter and butchery of tens of millions, both 

at the international and the national levels. Hitler, Stalin and Hiroshima 

are phenomena of the twentieth century secularism. The nations of 

the world are spending on arms a thousand billion dollars each year. It

38 

is this dismal spectacle that had, on the one hand, forced the Soviets 

to talk of the ‘priority of universal values over the class or group 

values’, and, on the other hand, led the North American Churches to 

suggest co-operation with other religions in order to fight the common 

danger of secularism. For the present, either out of their ignorance, 

or for other reasons, the European Churches have overruled the 

American view. But, the problem remains and stands highlighted by 

thinking persons. Decades back, Collingwood wrote : “The discovery 

of a relation is at once the discovery of my thought as reaching God 

and of God’s thought as reaching me; and indistinguishable from this, 

the performance of an act of mine by which I establish a relation with 

God and an act of God’s by which He establishes a relation with me. 

To fancy that religion lives either below or above the limits of reflective 

thought is fatally to misconceive either the nature of religion or the 

nature of reflective thought. It would be nearer the truth to say that 

in religion, the life of reflection is concentrated in its intensest form, 

and that the special problems of the theoretical and practical life all 

take their special forms by segregation out of the body of religious 

consciousness and retain their vitality only so far as they preserve 

their connexion with it and with each other in it.” 76 This statement 

presents the view that unless reason and religion are combined, or the 

spiritual life is combined with the empirical life of man, his problems 

will remain insolvable. Reason is incapable of devising or creating a 

moral force. Hence, the inherent incapacity of secularism to create 

any worthwhile values, much less universal values. The fall of the 

Russian Empire has made this clear. 

Five hundred years ago, Guru Nanak emphasised that unless the 

spiritual component enriches the empirical life, man’s problems of 

conflict, war and disharmony will remain. The solution lies in working 

in consonance with God’s Will or the Basic Force of Love and Altruism. 

The brotherhood of man cannot be a reality without accepting the 

Fatherhood of God. For the Gurus, the Fatherhood of God or Force 

of Love or Universal Consciousness is not an assumption, but a reality. 

For them, it is a true and most indubitable experience, spontaneously 

leading to activity. It is an experience far more real than the sensory 

perception of external phenomena or the construction of a pragmatic 

or utilitarian ethics, or the assumption of a dialectical movement raised 

by human reason. The Gurus exhort man to follow the path of 

altruistic deeds to reach the next evolutionary stage of gurmukh or 

God-man. It is a worldview of combining the spiritual life with the

39 

empirical life of man, thereby breaking the alienation from which man 

suffers. It is a worldview of total responsibility towards every sphere 

of life, the God-man’s sphere of responsibility being co-terminus with 

the sphere of God. At a time when most of the higher religions have 

either become dichotomous, or are withdrawing from the main fields 

of social responsibility, and human reason feels frustrated, the Sikh 

Gurus express a comprehensive worldview of hope and eternal 

relevance. At the same time, it is important to state that, far from 

being exclusive, Sikhism is universal in its approach, always anxious 

and willing to serve and co-operate with those who aim at harmony 

among beings and welfare of man. For, the Guru’s prayer to God is 

that the world may be saved by any way. He may be Gracious enough 

to do. 77 And, Guru Nanak proclaimed that his mission was, with the 

help of other God-men, to steer man across the turbulent sea of life. 78 

This fundamental ideal stands enshrined in the final words of the daily 

Sikh prayer, “May God bless all mankind.” 

REFERENCES 

1 Guru Granth Sahib, p. 459 

2 Ibid., p. 294 

3 Ibid., p. 955 

4 Ibid., p. 8 

5 Ibid., p. 859 

6 Stace, W. T. : Mysticism and Philosophy, pp. 131, 133 

7 Huxley, Aldous : Moksha, p. 175 

8 Ibid., pp. 222, 223 


10 Zimmer, H. : Philosophies of India, pp. 222-223 

11 Journal of Sikh Studies, Vol. VII, February-August, 1980, p. 38 

12 Ibid 

13 Jain, N. K. : Sikh Gurus and Indian Spiritual Thought, p. 168 

14 Jaiswal, Suvira : Origin and Development of Vaisnavism, pp. 116-118 

15 Murthy, H. V. S. : Vaisnavism of Shankradeva and Ramanuja, p. 232 

16 Juergensmeyer, Mark : Sikh Studies, pp. 83-88 


18 Bhai Gurdas, Var 1 


20 Ibid., p. 1412 

21 Macauliffe, M. A. : The Sikh Religion, Vol. III, pp. 7-8, 419 


23 Ibid., pp. 8-9.

24 Ibid., p. 62 

25 Ibid., p. 113 

26 Ibid., p. 473 

27 Panjab Past and Present, October, 1976, p. 468 


29 Ibid., p. 730 

30 Wilson, H. H. : Religious Sects of Hindus, p. 19 

31 Briggs, G. W. : Gorakhnath and Kanphata Yogis, p. 32 


33 Ibid., p. 886 

34 Ibid., p. 1171 

35 Ibid., p. 889 

36 Ibid., p. 417 

37 Russell, Bertrand : History of Western Philosophy, p. 362-363 

38 Dowley, Tim (Ed.) : Eerdman’s Handbook to the History of Christianity, 

p. 5 

39 Guru Granth Sahib, pp. 360, 417-418 

40 Ibid., p. 1028 

41 Ibid., p. 224 

42 Ibid., p. 145 

43 Ibid., p. 1289 

44 Ibid., p. 472 

45 Bhalla, Sarup Dass : Mehma Prakash, p. 326 

46 Gupta, H. R. : History of the Sikh Gurus, p. 110 

47 Sainapat : Gur Sobha, pp. 21, 32 

48 Bute Shah : Tawarikh-i-Hind, pp. 405-406 

49 Gurdev Singh : Sikh Tradition, pp. 183-227 

50 Cunningham, J. D. : History of the Sikhs, p. 64 


52 Ibid., p. 631 

53 Ibid., p. 913 

54 Ibid., p. 913 

55 Ibid., p. 113 

56 Hertzberg, Arthur (Ed.) : Judaism, p. 98. 

57 Zvi Cahn : Philosophy of Judaism, pp. 503-504 

58 Smart, Ninian : The Religious Experience of Mankind, pp. 356-358 

59 Zvi Cahn : op. cit., p. 504 Roth. Cecil : Short History of the Jewish 

People, pp. 45-52, 57 

60 Hawking, Stephen : A Brief History of Time, pp. 177-178 

40

61 Bible : John, p. 15, Mathew, p. 22 

62 Toynbee, Arnold, J. : Christianity and Civilisation, pp. 14-17 

63 Dowley, Tim (Ed.) : op. cit., pp. 204-207 

64 Toynbee, Arnold, J. : An Historian’s Approach to Religion, p. 210 

65 Dowley, Tim (Ed.) : op. cit., pp. 570-571 

66 The Tribune : July 12-13, 1990 

67 Dialogue & Alliance : A Journal of International Religious Foundation, 

Summer 1987, Vol. 1, pp. 94-96 

6 8 Dowley, Tim (Ed.) : op. cit., p. 610 

69 Moltmann, J. et al : Religion and Political Society, pp. 19, 46 

70 Panikkar, K. M. : Hindu Society at Cross Roads, p. 18 


72 Ambedkar, B. R. : Annihilation of Caste, (an undelivered speech edited by 

Mulkh Raj Anand) 

73 Gupta, H. R. : History of the Sikhs, Vol. 1, p. 163 

74 Limits of Growth : A report for the Club of Rome’s Project. pp. 191-192 

75 Schumacher, E. F. : A Guide to the Perplexed, p. 132 

76 Collingwood, R. G. : Idea of History, pp. 314-315 


78 Ibid., p. 939 

41

5 

SIKHISM : A MlRI PIRI SYSTEM 

DALJEET SlNGH 

1. Introductory 

There is little doubt that Miri Piri doctrine is an essential part 

of the Sikh religion. But, a misunderstanding that often exists, especially 

among scholars from pacificist religions, is that the doctrine was 

introduced or created by the Sixth Master. Because of that 

misunderstanding many extraneous or environmental interpretations 

have been devised to explain the seeming change in ideology. In this 

paper we seek to examine whether the Miri Piri combination in Sikh 

religion is fundamental to the system of Guru Nanak, or it is a 

subsequent addition made by the Sixth Master. For any examination 

of the issue the basic question is what is the Sikh world-view, and 

what is the nature of the spiritual experience of the Gurus and their 

definition of the Spiritual Reality. The second question is what is the 

relation of the Spiritual Reality to the empirical life of man. Because 

answers to these two questions determine the class and character of a 

religious system. For, in whole-life or Miri Piri systems like Sikhism, 

Islam and Judaism the answers to these two questions are quite 

different from those given by pacificist or dichotomous religions, like 

Vaisnavism, Christianity, Buddhism, etc. Since replies to these questions 

will mostly be ontological or theological in nature, we shall seek in 

this paper to state the views of the Gurus, as embodied in the Guru 

Granth Sahib, and as exemplified in their lives. 

2. Sikh Thesis 

The rationale of every religious system follows the kind of 

spiritual reality the author experiences. For the Guru, ‘God is All Love, 

rest He is ineffable’ 1 . And, God’s love can be expressed only in a real 

world; besides, Love is both dynamic and the mother of all values and 

virtues. In the very opening line of the Japuji, God is called, ‘The 

Creative Being’, and further He is described as ‘Ever Creative, watching 

His Creation with a Gracious Eye’. 2 The Guru 

42

calls the world real and, ‘The place for the practice of righteousness’? 3 

God is the ‘Ocean of values and virtues’; ‘Eyes to the blind, milk to the 

child and riches to the poor’. 4 The Guru, thus, emphasizes four things. 

First, the world is real and meaningful, being the place for the practice of 

virtues. Second, God too is deeply interested in it. For, He not only looks 

after it with benevolence, but also expresses His Love and Attributes in 

this world. Third, this gives spiritual sanction to the moral life of man. 

That is why Guru Nanak lays down for the seeker the goal of ‘carrying 

out the will of God’ , 5 God’s will being altruistic and the fount of all 

values. The Guru further emphasizes this creative or activity aspect of his 

system when he says, ‘Higher than everything is Truth, but higher still is 

truthful living’ . 6 It is in this context that we understand Guru Nanak’s call 

to the seeker, ‘If you want to play the game of love, come with your head 

on your palm’? 7 Guru Nanak prescribes a methodology of deeds when 

He says ‘that it is by our deeds that we are assessed in His Court’. 8 And, ‘it 

is by our deeds that we become near or away from God’. 9 The above leads 

to the fourth principle, the most significant one, that there is an inalienable 

link between the spiritual life and the empirical life of man. These four 

fundamentals form the very base of Guru Nanak’s system which is radically 

different from the earlier Indian religions. 

3. Indian Background 

In all the earlier Indian religions whether Buddhism; Jainism, 

Vaisnavism or others, the dichotomy between the spiritual life and the 

empirical life was an accepted fundamental. In fact, four features are an 

integral part of all life-negating systems, namely, ,asceticism, Sanyasa, or 

monasticism, the down-grading of women and celibacy, and Ahimsa. 

Whether the goal is Kaivalya, Nirvana or Mukti, in each case it is an ideal 

of personal salvation or isolation. Guru Nanak rejected all the above 

principles because his is a life affirming system and his spiritual goal is to 

: carry out the Will of God’. And, God’s will is altruistic and for that 

matter, wholly Active and Creative. Here it might be asserted that the 

epics of Mahabharta and Ramayana and the Bhagvad Gita also recommend 

a life of activity. But, it is well known that the epics, as well as the Bhagvad 

Gita, fully accepted and sanctioned the Brahmanical system of caste and 

Varna Ashram Dharma, 10 and Lord Krishna asked Arjuna to fight because 

it was his caste duty to do so. But, Guru Nanak completely rejected 

caste and his first 

43

act after his enlightenment was to take a low caste Muslim as his life 

companion. 

Secondly, in systems that involve withdrawal from life or 

Sanyasa, celibacy and the consequent down-grading of women become 

natural features. It is so even with Vaisnavism and Bhagats like 

Shankradeva and Kabir 11 who do not recommend celibacy as an 

essential part of their systems. Similarly, Ahimsa or complete pacifism 

is a necessary ingredient of salvation religions or systems in which here is 

a dichotomy between the spiritual life and the empirical life of man. This 

dichotomy, we find, is an essential part of all monastic, life-negating or 

pacifist systems, in fact, of all Indian systems except those which 

recommend activity as a part of their caste duty. In the Indian systems the 

goal, as indicated already, is personal salvation, merger in or union with 

the Spiritual Reality. Such being the goal, other-worldiness, isolation from 

the activities of life or total or partial withdrawal from it, becomes a natural 

corollary. Consequently, problems of life and society cease to be the concern 

of the seeker who tries deliberately to disentangle himself from them. 

4. Why a Radical Departure from Indian Religions 

Even a glimpse of the earlier Indian religious systems and of 

Guru Nanak’s religion clearly shows the contrast of perceptions, 

methodologies, essentials and goals between the two. Guru Nanak’s God 

is ‘Ever Creative and Altruistic’ and so is His goal set for the seeker, 

namely, of always carrying out His Attributive Will. Guru Nanak was the 

first man of God to break the dichotomy that existed among all the earlier 

Indian religions and, instead, to establish an inalienable link between the 

spiritual life and the empirical life of man. It is only on the basis of this 

fundamental change that Guru Nanak brought about that we can 

understand his hymns about the attributes of God, the goal of man, 

emphasis on deeds, equality between man and man, and man and woman, 

the importance of householder’s life, the necessity of work and sharing, 

his tirade against idleness, the definition of sin, the hymn about the cant 

of the so called piety of non-meat eating or Ahimsa, 12 and his criticism of 

every corrupt social functionary and institution, whether religious, social, 

official, administrative, or political, the tyranny of the invaders and the 

failure of the rulers to ensure safety of the people. His spiritual soul is so 

sensitive to injustice in every walk of life that he complains to God for 

allowing the weak to be oppressed by the strong. 13 His calling God ‘the 

44

Slayer of the villains, and Destroyer of the evil’ . 14 has not only an antiahimsic 

import, but it also indicates clearly the role the seeker of his 

society has to play as the instrument of God. The Bani of Guru Nanak 

has three clear implications. First, that Guru’s God and the seeker are 

deeply interested in the world, involving the combination of the spiritual 

with the empirical. Second, he makes a detailed survey of all aspect of 

the religious, social and political life around him and specifically identifies 

and criticises the evil spots therein. Third, during a life full of activity, he 

takes all tangible steps to found and frame a socio-religious structure and 

society that should scrupulously pursue the aims and objectives of his 

radically new system and world-view. 

Our discussion and description given above make two things quite 

plain, namely, that Guru Nanak’s religious system is entirely different 

from all the earlier religious systems, and, secondly, that the radical departure 

he makes is due to his intrinsically combining the spiritual with the 

empirical, thereby breaking the dichotomy that had existed in the earlier 

religious life in India. This break with the past was so great that the Naths 

were surprised and questioned Guru Nanak how he claimed to pursue a 

spiritual path while living a householder’s life. The Guru’s reply that the 

Naths did not know even the elementaries of the spiritual path is equally 

emphatic about the clear contrast between his world-view and those of 

earlier system. 15 While the reason for making the radical break with the 

past is plain enough, the actual contrast is so great that the failure fully to 

comprehend the significance of that break continued and continues even 

today, among students of religion, especially among votaries of pacifist 

religions. In fact, no understanding of Sikhism is possible unless the 

meanings, compulsions, and corollaries of this break with the past 

following Guru Nanak’s spirituo - empirical world-view of life is clearly 

grasped. 

5. Foundations of New Structure Laid 

The next issue concerns the practical and organisational methods 

Guru Nanak employed to implement his religious thesis. We shall see that 

while those methods are clearly in line with his system, those are like his 

religion, very variant from the methodology of the earlier religions. By 

taking Mardana, a low caste Muslim with him, he gave a sledge-hammer 

blow to the then existing caste hierarchy of Varan Ashram Dharma, and 

Hindu-Muslim antipathy. Besides, it stressed that Guru’s system 

45

was not only new and universal in its character, but it was neither Hindu 

nor Muslim in its basis. The second step he took was to organise, at places 

he visited, local Sangats of his followers who were ordinary householders 

drawn from all sections of the society, and who met locally at a fixed 

place called a Dharmsala for purposes of religious worship and training. 

The significant feature of these societies was that their members were not 

just seekers of personal salvation or Nirvana practising some esoteric 

discipline, but were ordinary persons wanting to follow the spiritual path 

while pursing their normal vocations in life. This was, we find, completely 

in consonance with the system of Guru Nanak indicated above. Here it is 

important to mention that after his missionary tours Guru Nanak settled 

at Kartarpur with members of his family and started work as a peasant. 

By his personal example he stressed the importance of work and production 

and the sharing of it. The basic change Guru Nanak made was his emphasis 

on deeds and discarding ritualism. While addressing the Jogis, he told 

them that real Yoga lay in treating people equally rather than rubbing 

ashes on one’s body; 16 or that real prayer was to be compassionate and do 

good works instead of doing ritualistic prayer. 17 Since Guru’s followers 

were normal householders, for them the spiritual path lay in righteous 

living and not in following any tortuous ascetic or ritualistic routine of a 

system. 

Another institution started by Guru Nanak was that of Langar 

which had a dual objective, one of breaking caste barriers and ideas of 

pollution, and the second of creating centres which fed the poor and the 

needy. 

But, the most important step, indicative of profound implications, 

which Guru Nanak took was to select and appoint a successor in his 

lifetime. It meant, first, that Guru Nanak’s aim was not merely to lay 

down the outline of a theoretical religious system but it was to organise a 

society which should accept the social responsibility of confronting, fighting 

and eliminating injustice and aggression in the socio-political field. Because, 

so far as the theoretical system was concerned, it had been fully prescribed 

in the Bani of Guru Nanak; the subsequent Gurus added nothing to it. 

But, his system was neither for a few, nor for an elite seeking spiritual 

attainments. He wanted to build a society with new motivations that should 

simultaneously pursue social and spiritual ideals, since the two could not 

be separated in his system. The appointment of a successor, thus, made it 

plain that the work of 

46

creating a social and institutional structure and building a new society 

was till then incomplete. In the development and growth of the Sikh 

society, two things are important to study, first, whether or not the 

institutional build-up of the society made by the later Gurus was squarely 

based on the foundations laid by Guru Nanak; and second, whether during 

that period the activities undertaken and objectives pursued or achieved 

by the Sikh society were strictly in line with the spiritual ideals laid down 

by the first Guru. The thrust of Guru Nanak’s system is evident from one 

significant event. When Guru Nanak went to meet Guru Angad at Khadoor 

Sahib he found that he was leading what he felt to be a life of somewhat 

isolation. Guru Nanak, therefore, advised him that his primary duty was 

to organise a mission and lead a new society. 18 This sheds a revealing light 

both on the system and the mission of Guru Nanak. 

It is also significant that it is Guru Nanak who eliminated the 

hurdle of Ahimsa that stood in the way of a religious seeker from joining 

a righteous struggle against tyranny. In most of the socio-political systems, 

organisations or societies, the greatest instrument of injustice or oppression 

is many a time the Political Establishment. Since Guru Nanak wanted 

clearly to cultivate a high sense of social responsibility in his society, he 

very sagiously took the farsighted step of removing the handicap of Ahimsa 

from the path of the religious man; and described his God to be the ‘Slayer 

of villains and the Destroyer of tyrants.’ It is, thus, plain that Guru Nanak 

clearly envisages for his society a role, if necessary, of confrontation with 

an unjust Establishment whether social or political. 

The next questions is why did the Guru contemplate such a role 

for his society. The answer to this question already stands given, namely, 

that Guru’s God is a ‘Just Emperor’ and embodies the roles both of Miri 

and Piri. Since the Guru and the seeker have to be the instruments of 

God’s Will, they too have to play their part in both the spheres of life. 

Thus, the compulsion and the rationale behind the doctrine of Miri and 

Piri, is Guru Nanak’s view of God and his essential combination of the 

spiritual life and the empirical life. An important corollary of this 

combination and the consequential Miri-Piri doctrine is the emphasis Guru 

Nanak laid on deeds and the moral life of man (Truthful living being the 

highest mode of living). Here it is necessary to state the contrast between 

the priority given to moral life in Sikhism and the virtual 

47

lack of that emphasis in the Hindu way of life where ‘all ethics is super 

moral i.e. it has not much to do with the empirical life of man’. 19 Thus 

Guru Nanak’s combination of the spiritual with the empirical not only 

leads to the Miri Piri doctrine but also to his emphasis on deeds in the 

moral life of man. This principle implies two-fold duties of a Sikh both as 

an individual and as a member of the Sikh society to fight social evils.In 

sum, the life-affirming thesis of Guru Nanak meant that one should live 

in the social world and build it on the bedrock of a combination of the 

spiritual dimension of man with his empirical dimension. Thus, 

participation in the social life involved four sets of responsibilities, namely, 

of ensuring justice and equality between man and man, and between man 

and woman, of creating production and sharing it equitably, and, fourthly, 

of reacting against every injustice and wrong in the socio-political field 

both as an individual and as a society In this context, Guru Nanak took 

three important steps. He laid down all aspects of his life-affirming spiritual 

thesis in his Bani. Second, he organised a society and by his personal 

example and leadership, he tried to educate and eliminate from it evils of 

caste and social discrimination. Third, he clearly identified the sociopolitical 

problems of injustice and oppression. Since political problems 

could not be solved in a short time, he identified them and laid down the 

target for his society to achieve. What we mean to imply is that Guru 

Nanak’s strong criticism of the rulers and invaders and the oppression of 

the weak by the strong was not merely a piece of rhetoric. It was virtually 

a direction in which his society was to move and a target it was to achieve 

in due course of time. For, the target of supplanting an empire could not 

be achieved in a life-time. And, Guru Nanak specifically removed the 

religious inhibition of Ahimsa that existed for earlier Indian seekers of a 

religious life. He not only stressed that people did not know what was 

flesh and what was not flesh and what was sin and what was not sin, but 

also stated that life was there in every grain of food we take. 20 The 

clarification was essential to make for a prophet who wanted his society 

to take up political challenges. Two things are very significant about the 

revolutionary change Guru Nanak made in the religious life of his society. 

He wanted it to ensure justice and equality in the social field. Hence the 

necessity of production, equitable distribution, and equality in social status. 

Secondly, removal of socio-political oppression was also made a 

48

target to be achieved by the Sikh society. It is, indeed, unfortunate that 

many a scholar has been unable to correlate the clear meaning and 

significance of three uncommon but emphatic facts. First is Guru Nanak’s 

Babar Vani and his statement that a political system in which the strong 

oppress the weak is an aberration in the spiritual world of God. Second is 

his organisation of a society, and the appointment of a successor to develop, 

strengthen, and mature that society. Third is his elimination of the 

centuries-old constraint of Ahimsa for the spiritual seeker. We are not 

aware of any prophet or Bhagat, except Prophet Muhammad, who had 

specifically related these three points. But in a system in which the spiritual 

is combined with the empirical, this integration, as it happened, would 

evidently be natural and necessary, being the base of the Miri Piri worldview. 

6. Developments during the Guru period 

Seen from the angle of the two objectives mentioned above, the 

Guru period may be divided into two parts, the one upto the time of the 

fifth Guru, and, the second thereafter. Here a word of caution. In describing 

the further growth of the Sikh society, we shall confine our narration only 

to two aspects of it mentioned earlier, namely, its organisation as a cohesive 

and responsible society and, second, its capacity to discharge its 

responsibility in the socio-political field. But it does not mean that the 

other aspects of the religious society and its members were not developed 

or taken care of. 

Guru Angad took two important steps. First, he improved the 

Punjabi script so that it could suitably become a complete vehicle of 

Guru’s spiritual message and thereby wean a way the Sikhs from the diehard 

and caste-ridden tradition of the Sanskrit literature considered to be 

the sacred and sole vehicle of the Hindu spiritual tradition, with Brahmins 

as its exclusive masters and exponents. Secondly, he excluded the ascetics 

and other recluses from the Sikh society. It is clearly recorded that in his 

time the use of meat as food in the Langer or otherwise was accepted. 21 

The Third Guru took three further steps, First, he made the institution of 

Langer so Important that no one, big or small, could see him or partake in 

his Sangat till he had given evidence of his anti-caste and anti-pollution 

views by partaking of food from the Guru’s common kitchen. Second, he 

created 22 reaching and administrative centres for the organisation of the 

Sikh society in areas far and wide. Even women were appointed to head 

them. 22 Third, in order 

49

to establish the separate identity of the Sikh society and to dissociate it 

from the Hindu practices and pilgrimages, he created a Bauly at Goindwal, 

where the Guru lived, as the alternate place for the religious visits, 

education, and regeneration of the Sikhs. The ministry of the fourth Guru 

lasted only for seven years, but he too made the momentous decision of 

founding Amritsar as the sacred centre of a new community, and developing 

a new township, which has since then played a crucial role in Sikh history. 

The role of the Fifth Guru is extremely important. He did the momentous 

work of compiling and authenticating the Sikh Scripture, thereby making 

the ideological break with the traditional Indian society complete and 

unbridgeable. It is in his times that the Sikh society had become ‘a state 

within a state, 23 in which the Guru was called the real emperor (Sacha 

Patshah). He asked Sikhs to work as traders who brought from the northwest 

of India horses for sale in the country. It was the Sikh society of the 

time of the fifth Guru that Jahangir felt could form a potential political 

challenge that needed to be nipped in the bud by the execution of the 

Guru. 24 The Guru not only accepted the challenge boldly, but by his 

martyrdom also prepared his people for the confrontation that he had 

initiated. And it was he who left instructions for his son to start military 

preparations for the ensuing struggle. Here it is significant to state that 

Guru Hargobind had started joining hunting parties even in the life time 

of his father. 25 The period of Guru Hargobind was of open militarisation 

and conflict with the Empire. At the time of his initiation as Guru, he 

donned two swords one of Piri and the other of Miri, thereby making it 

clear the future role the Sikh society was to play. Military training was 

started and even mercenaries were enlisted. There were open clashes with 

the forces of the state. A fort was constructed at Amritsar and Akal Takhat, 

the centre of political activity, was created side by side with Harmandir 

Sahib. Two flags of Miri and Piri were raised at the common compound 

between Harmandir Sahib and Akal Takhat, being the symbols of the 

doctrine of Guru Nanak combining spirituality with empirical life. 

It is significant that the changes initiated by the fifth and the sixth 

Gurus in the Sikh life were deliberate and calculated. It is, therefore, naive 

to say that militarisation of the movement was in any way influenced by 

Jats in the Sikh society who were clearly in a small minority then. 26 In fact, 

a notable feature of this radical change the Gurus brought about in the 

course of the Sikh 

50

movement and the Sikh practices is that while the Gurus were very clear 

and determined about their ideological direction and drive, even some of 

the Sikhs around them found it difficult, because of the old Indian religious 

and ascetic conditioning, to comprehend and follow their ideological 

significance. So far as the outsiders are concerned their lack of 

understanding it is epitomised by the question of Sant Ram Das of 

Maharashtra to Guru Hargobind (as earlier of Naths to Guru Nanak) as 

to how it was that while he called himself a successor of Guru Nanak, he 

was so anomalously wearing a warrior’s armour and riding a horse. The 

Guru’s reply, as was earlier the reply of Guru Nanak to Naths, was prompt 

and categoric. ‘Guru Nanak had given up mammon and not the world. 

My sword is for the protection of the weak and destruction of the tyrant. 27 

It is relevant here to recall that it is Guru Nanak who first calls God the 

Destroyer of the tyrant and the villains. Initially, even men like Baba 

Budha, Bhai Gurdas and others not only failed to comprehend the true 

ideological implications of militarization, but they even tried to remonstrate 

with the mother of the Guru suggesting the risks of the Guru’s policy. In 

fact, the ideological revolution Guru Nanak had brought about was so 

great that many scholars fumble in grasping the doctrinal unity of the 

lives and the practices of the ten Gurus. But, it is quite unfortunate that 

while they try to give a materialist explanation for this change, they almost 

invariably ignore or suppress the historical evidence left by Sant Ram Das 

about Hargobind’s clear clarification of the militarization and the change 

he had deliberatly initiated. 

The seventh and the eighth Gurus not only pursued the policy of 

militarization, but the seventh Guru even went to the extent of meeting 

the rebel Dara and offering him military help. 28 Evidently, the Guru while 

he offered military assistance to Dara could not be ignorant or oblivious 

of the fate of the fifth Guru who had given some help to rebel Khusro. 

And yet, knowing this, he openly made the offer. All this demonstrates 

how clear were Guru Nanak and his successors about their ideology, and 

how, with a single-mindedness of purpose, they pursued their aims and 

objectives and executed their policy even though some of their own 

followers were sometimes slow in keeping pace with them or understanding 

and imbibing the spirit of the movement. No wonder outsiders had 

difficulties in properly appreciating the real message of Guru Nanak. 

Just as the martyrdom of fifth Guru had synchronised with a 

51

major- change in Mughal policies from Akbar to Jahangir, in the time of 

the ninth Guru, Aurangzeb’s policy of Islamisation had become intensly 

oppressive in its execution. To shake the people out of their fear and 

timidity and to strengthen his own community for the major struggle ahead, 

the ninth Guru felt that the occasion was ripe for him to sacrifice himself 

for the faith. Here it is relevant to state that the Guru had clearly declined 

the offer of the emperor that if he desisted from political activities he 

would not be disturbed in his religious interests. 29 But the ninth Guru, 

whose Bani epitomises the tranquility of spiritual depth, chose to intervene 

and protest against religious persecution and attack by the Empire on the 

freedom of conscience in Kashmir. He was beheaded in Delhi in 1675 

A.D. 

After this martyrdom starts the final phase of the Guru period. 

Guru Gobind Singh was fully conscious of the trial that lay ahead. He 

organised and militarized his people and trained them in local wars in 

which he had to partake. Two features of this period come out very 

prominently. The Guru asked the hill princes to join his struggle against 

the Empire and make a common cause with him. But they declined to do 

so, 30 because the Guru stood for the equality of men and had broken all 

caste barriers which the hill princes wanted to preserve, as also their feudal 

interests. Not only that. Later the hill Rajas even invited the imperial 

forces to curb the Guru and joined them to attack and fight him. Evidently, 

the religious and ideological contrast between the Hindu hill princes and 

the Guru was complete. But, Pir Budhu Shah, a Muslim saint of the area, 

was ideologically so impressed by the spiritual stature of the Guru that he 

not only sent his followers to fight for the Guru, but two of his sons 

actually died fighting in the Guru’s army. These two events, on the one 

hand, bring out the ideological and religious gulf between Guru Gobind 

Singh and the old Hindu tradition of Rajput hill princes. On the other 

hand, these show that the Guru’s mission and his struggle for the cause 

of man were such as to command the affection and affinities of even a 

Muslim Sufi saint. 

It was on the Baisakhi day of 1699 A.D. that the Guru did the 

epitomic work of creating the Khalsa and revealing the prime object of 

his mission. 31 In many ways, it was a momentous day. He selected the five 

beloved leaders of the community on the basis of their willingness to 

sacrifice their all for the Guru’s cause. Four of these belonged to what the 

Hindus called the Sudra castes. In order to establish the Khalsa brotherhood, 

the Guru first baptized 

52

(performed Amrit ceremony) all five of them and later requested those 

five to administer Amrit to the Guru himself. The Guru gave five freedoms 

to his Khalsa (Dharam Nash, Karam Nash, Bharam Nash, Kul Nash, 

Kirat Nash). 32 It involved a complete break with the past traditional 

religions, customs, social prejudices, and structures. It was a stage when 

the Guru felt that the Sikh community had become mature, self-reliant 

and responsible enough to fight the socio-political injustices and battles 

of life that lay ahead. A momentous socio-political confrontation had 

started with the greatest empire of the day. In that struggle the Guru lost 

his mother and all his four sons. Yet the confrontation was continued by 

the Guru undismayed and he sent Banda Singh to invade the Mughals in 

Punjab. 

The mission of Guru Nanak was fulfilled, a religiously motivated 

casteless and classless brotherhood, the Khalsa, had been created to fight 

for righteousness and against all socio-political injustices. In 1708 A.D. 

the Guru passed away, leaving the Guru Granth as the spiritual guide of 

the Sikhs and the Khalsa as the active instrument of conducting the 

ideological battles of life. This dual succession epitomises the combination 

of the spiritual with the empricial system of Guru Nanak and the 

consequent unity of Miri Piri doctrine. It would be naive to suppose that 

further succession was stopped because the Guru had no progency or for 

any like reason. The succession was stopped because Guru Nanak’s mission 

of creating a religious society, fully earth-aware, socially and morally 

responsible, and ever ready to fight injustice and oppression had been 

created. It is in this perspective that the history of the Sikhs has to be 

understood and viewed. 

7. The Post Guru Period 

The socio moral organisation and society the Guru had created bore one 

of its fruits in the half century following the demise of the Tenth Master. 

In 1710 A.D., the Sikh forces, led by Banda captured Sirhind a strong 

imperial province in the north of India. The Mughal campaign and attacks 

against the Sikhs started in full swing. A price was put on every Sikh head 

and twice it was reported. that all Sikhs had been exterminated. 33 It is 

during this very period that Abdali, the greatest general in the East, started 

his invasions of India; and Sikhs as the self-reliant and responsible 

community of the area had to face and confront him,. They had no state 

or political organisation of their own, nor had they any trained 

53

leadership as in the Guru period. But, despite persecutions by the state, 

and pressures from the invaders, the Sikhs as ideologically fired and 

intensely motivated guerillas, triumphed to form a state of their own in 

the area. After their success they upset the Zamindari System and 

distributed land among the tillers of the soil. It was a land-mark Socioeconomic 

revolution which has structured the strength of the community 

and the Punjab masses. A remarkable achievement of the Sikh forces, 

despite these having suffered the worst persecution, and, which drew 

admiration even of their opponents, was their humane treatment of men 

and women of their defeated adversaries in war. 34 This conduct of the 

Sikh soldiers in victory was such as no modern army has been able to 

equal so far. It is nothing short of a miracle that a leader less community, 

without any state, and drawn from the lowest sections of the society was 

able successfully not only to supplant the empire of the day, but also to 

repel the greatest invading general of the time and to seal the north-western 

border against all future inroads into India. Ranjit Singh’s rule was, by all 

standards, fair and tolerant towards all communities, and humane to the 

extent that he never found it necessary to sentence even a single person to 

death, not even those who attempted to murder him. 

The struggle of the Sikh society for basic rights of man during 

the British and the Independence periods of history has been equally 

outstanding. The first two rebellions against the British, the Kuka Rebellion 

and the Ghadar Rebellion, were almost wholly manned by the Sikhs While 

the Sikhs form only two percent of India’s population, during the struggle 

for Indian Independence, of the 121 persons hanged, 2644 imprisoned 

for life, and 1300 massacred in the Jallianwala Bagh protest meeting 93,2047 

and 799 respectively were Sikhs. Again, of the soldiers who fought under 

Subash Chander Bose in the Indian National Army, 60% were, Sikhs. 35 In 

1975, when the Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi, imposed the Emergency 

Law, curtailing all human rights, the Sikhs were the only people who 

sustained and organised a struggle against this invasion on all human 

freedoms, involving the arrest of over 40,000 Sikhs, when, in the rest of 

India, not even half that number offered arrest as a protest. It is necessary 

to state that particularly all these movements initiated by the Sikhs against 

the state were executed from the precints of Darbar Sahib (Golden Temple 

and Akal Takht Complex) Amritsar. 

The point of importance is why a small and insignificant 

54

community is always in the vanguard to make tremendous sacrifices and 

struggle whenever it is a question of a guarding human rights and freedoms. 

And the sense of their earth-awareness and social responsibility is 

significant enough to make them create bountyful production not only to 

feed and sustain the population of their own state, but also to contribute 

each year over 60% of the central food reserve that feeds all the deficit 

areas in the rest of the country. Evidently, it is believed that these 

achievements are due to the thesis of Guru Nanak combining the spiritual 

life of man with his empirical concerns, thereby breaking the dichotomy 

that had existed in the earlier Indian religious systems. It is the thesis of 

Guru Nanak that the empirical life of man dissociated from his spiritual 

dimension reduces itself to stark egocentrism, individualism and 

materialism, leading to perpetual clash and conflicts in the human society 

.In the same way spiritualism divorced from the empirical life is just barren, 

ending in escapism and a kind of selfishness for individual salvation. 

8. The Western Scene 

In this background we shall now discuss the ideological place 

and relevance of Secularism, as an institution, which his gained a growing 

recognition in the western culture in the last two hundred years. Since the 

days of Constantine, in the Christan society, the Church was considered 

supreme and gave legitimacy to the kings and political institutions of the 

state. But, the unfortunate fall in the moral life of the Church gave rise to 

Protestanism and Calvinism in the 16th century. The Reformation while 

it purified and shook life in the Church, brought about a major change in 

the equation between the Church and the State, or between the religious 

life and the empirical life of man. For, it once for all brought about the 

supremacy of the national State over the Church, which ceased to be 

universal, and became virtually a limb of the national State. During a war 

between two national states, the position of Church became quite 

anomalous, and each Church prayed for the success of its own State. As 

Toynbee laments, the Graeeo-Roman ideal of the worship of the National 

State as the goddess was revived and accepted. 36 This was the first major 

blow the Church Universal suffered at the hands of the State following 

the Reformation. 

The second slow but major erosion of the power and the status 

of religion took place with the rise of Science, Darwinism, 

Evolutionism and empiricism. The unstable marriage between 

Religion and the State gave rise to the off-springs of Monopoly 

55

Capitalism in the West, and Communism in the East. The heady wine of 

power which Science and Technology gave to man so clouded his vision 

and sense of proportion that religions came to be considered an area of 

darkness which Science would duly probe, explore, and clear. All progress 

of man was measured by the power over nature it gave to him. Without 

realising the inherent limitations of the scientific method in the field of 

religion and values, its use became so pervasive and dominant even in the 

field of humanities that ontology virtually lost its hold, and the study of 

phenomena became an end in itself. Human evolution was deemed 

dependent on a chance mutation and the definition of values that made 

for survival ended in mere tautology. Mechanical methodology or 

reductionism became the standard mode of understanding and 

interpretation even in the field of religion and the so called social sciences. 

As with Pavlov and Skinner, human behaviour came to be studied on the 

basis of animal behaviour, and the phenomena of biology came to be 

understood on the basis of ‘Physics and Chemistry’. 37 Human free will 

became just a quirk of atoms, and ‘works of art’ were sought to be 

understood ‘in terms of animal behaviour’. 38 No where was confusion 

more apparent than in the field of ethics. 39 Consequently, the spiritual 

dimension of Reality ceased to have any fundamental meaning; nor could 

this aspect of man be the subject of any serious academic study, except as 

a piece of external phenomena or as a part of social history. Slowly but 

naturally, Individualism and Consumerism gained social relevance as 

worthwhile values and Secularism became a part of state policy. 

But the two world wars within a period of two decades have 

shaken the scientific man’s faith in himself and the ideal of a continuous 

linear progress the West was seeking to pursue. It became increasingly 

clear that if the scientific assumption of the space-time continuum being 

the complete base of our universe was true, we were living in a world that 

was wholly void of values and completely amoral in its structure. Values 

were considered mere utilitarian tools of human creation without any 

fundamental base or validity. In the wake of this mood of introspection 

came the warning from the authors of the Limits of Growth that our 

world system was neither abundant enough nor generous enough to permit 

for long our self-serving ego-centrism to continue recklessly on 

the path of aggressive, narrow and suicidal individualism or 

nationalism. 40 A decade earlier Toynbee had already sounded the 

56

note ‘wondering whether the technologist’s professional success had not 

been a social and moral disaster’ and whether he had not placed in the 

hands of the naked ape the power to destroy the human race. 41 These 

were lone voices, but in the socio-political field the mad race of Goliaths 

went on with the lolly-pops of Consumerism being offered to lull the 

peoples at large. On both sides of the line between Capitalism and 

Communism increasing symptoms of alcoholism, drug addiction, divorces, 

broken homes and unbalanced children have appeared in the life of man. 

The basic issue remains, whether man’s rational and moral faculties arise 

from the same Base of Reality which is the subject of scientific study and 

is material, neutral and amoral in its structure. With the growing impact 

of Naturalism and Evolutionism, the landslide which had started with 

the Reformation, making Religion to be the hand-maid of the State, ended 

in a virtual divorce between the State and Religion in the conduct of the 

empirical life of man. Instead Science sanctified, on grounds of dealing 

with a political world, a close liaison between the State and its new-found 

Secularism, giving unbridled and uninhibited opportunities to the politicians 

to serve and satiate their individualism and ego-centrism. It is in the 

resultant suffocating climate that a person like Galbraith has raised the 

protest that in the American and British politics greed had openly started 

masquerading as morality. But, the greatest danger in the modern West is 

the Frankenstein of a mighty military machine which each national secular 

State is creating under the garb of ensuring security of its people. 

Increasingly it has been felt and feared that besides the stranglehold of 

the military machine, the modern state has an enormous power and subtle 

and pervasive means of influencing, enervating, and debasing the minds 

of its people. A day may come, when it would become impossible for the 

harassed people to dislodge this self-seeking Secularism from the driver’s 

seat and control. 

In this dismal scene there are visibly some welcome developments. 

The social stagnation in Latin America and Africa has given rise to 

Liberation theology. It invokes the Bible for its moral sanction and 

empiricism for its rational analysis. It seeks to highlight the fundamental 

fact that Christ’s primary dictum of love for one’s neighbour becomes 

meaningless if the man of religion is unable to confront every instrument 

of injustice and aggression against the weak. And the State, as in the past, 

sometimes becomes the greatest instrument of oppression, involving cold 

57

extermination of millions of its own peoples. Second, there is a growing 

realisation that it is sheer moonshine to talk of the brotherhood of man 

without accepting the fatherhood of God, or that God, as Christ says, is 

Love. Accordingly, the American Churches have raised a clear voice that 

in order to fight the menace of Secularism, Christianity should invite the 

cooperation of all Higher Religions in the world. 42 

Conclusion 

In this context, let us have a look back at Guru Nanak’s system. 

He made it clear that the fundamental Reality was not amoral but it was 

the Ocean and Fount of all altruism. Thus, the contrast between Scientism, 

with its methodology of mechanism or reductionism, and Sikhism with 

its whole-life approach of the inalienable and fundamental link between 

the spiritual component and the empirical component of man, is quite 

clear and complete. In Guru Nanak’ s view ego-centrism is our 

constitutional handicap. It is man’s chief malady that obstructs his vision 

from taking a universal world-view. The Adi Granth and the lives of the 

Gurus make the Sikh position on the issue abundantly clear. The Miri-Piri 

ideal is an integral symbol and projection of the unified thesis of Guru 

Nanak and his successors, who have demonstrated its spiritual validity by 

their very lives. The domain or source of values is the spiritual or the 

transcendent level of Reality. We shall never find altruism, if we follow 

the reductionist or the mechanical method of going down the road from 

biology to physics or from man to the ape, the amoeba, or its genes. We 

can, at best, talk of a logical or constructed ethics, but we can neither live 

it nor participate in it voluntarily or spontaneously. The Gurus say that 

the way forward is to go the path of altruism and combine the spiritual 

with the empirical, and not the way of dichotomy or of secularism the 

modern sceptical mind is pursuing. The secular path will inevitably lead to 

stagnation and discord. 

The spiritual path through altruism is for the development of a 

higher consciousness to enable us to perceive that the Basic Reality, as 

the Gurus say, is All Love. In Sikhism, we conclude, there is no place for 

dichotomy between the spiritual and the empirical, and the humble hand 

of friendship and cooperation has to be extended to every one who believes 

in Transcendence as the Base or Cause of Love, Altruism and life. And, 

in life one cannot be a disinterested bystander, since withdrawal is to help 

the opponents of God’s Will, namely, ignorant egoists or Manmukhs. 

58

Hence the fundamental validity of Guru Nanak’s Miri-Piri or whole-life 

religion. 

REFERENCES 

1. Guru Granth Sahib, p.459 

2 Ibid., p. 8 

3 Ibid., p. 468 

4 Ibid., p. 830 

5 Ibid., p. 1 

6 Ibid., p. 62 

7 Ibid., p. 7 1412 

8 Ibid., p. 26 

9 Ibid., p. 8 

10 Annie Besant, Bhagavad Gita, pp. 252-254 

11 Murthy, HVS, Vaisnavism of Shankradeva & Ramanuja, p. 232 Juugenmeyer. M., Sikh 

Studies, Berkley, pp. 83-88 

12 Guru Granth Sahib, pp. 1289-90 

13 Ibid., pp. 417-18 

14 Ibid., pp. 145,224,1028 

15 Bhai Gurdas, Var, I 


17 Ibid., pp. 140-41 

18 Mehma Parkash I, p. 326, 11, p.9 

19 Maitra, S.K.: Ethics of Hindus, pp. 244, 263-66 

20 Guru Granth Sahib; p. 472,1289 

21 Sarup Das Bhalla, Mehma Parkash Part-Il, pp. 49,64 

22 Punjab Past and Present, Oct. 1976, p. 468 

23 Gupta, H.R., History of Sikh Gurus, p.110 

24 Ibid., p. 102-110 

25 Gur Bilas Patshahi Chhevin, pp. 84-85 

26 Punjab Past and Present, Vol. III, 1969, p.69 

27 Gupta, H.R., History of Sikh Gurus, p.114 

28 Daljeet Singh, Sikhism; pp. 277-78 

29 Bannerji, A.C. Journal of Sikh Studies, GND University, vol. ll, No I (Feb., 1976), p.61 

30 Jagjit Singh, Sikh Revolution, p. 177 

31 Sainapat, Guru Sobha, pp. 21,32 

59

32 Gupta, H.R., History of Sikh Gurus, p. 189 

33 Ibid., History of Sikhs, Vol. I, pp.27-32, 71-72, 82-83, 176-77, 261, Forster, p.312-13 

34 Qazi Noor Muhammad, Jangnama; pp. 172-75; Gupta, H.R., History of Sikhs, p.290 

35 Rajinder Puri, Rediscovery of India, p.21 

36 Toynbee. A., An Historian’s Approach to Religion, p.210 

37 Smith Haston, Beyond the Post Modern Mind; p.136, Francis G, of Molecules and Men, 

Seattle University of Washington Press, 1966. 

38. Ibid., P. 136 

39 Schumacher, E.F., A Guide for the Perplexed, p.132 

40 Limits of Growth, Report for Club of Romis Project, pp. 191-192 

41 Toynbee, A., An Historian’s Approach to Religion, pp. 233-35 42. 

42 Dialogue and Alliance; Summer, 1987, Vol. I, No. 2, p.95 

60

6 

POLITICAL IDEAS OF GURU NANAK, 

THE ORIGINATOR OF THE SIKH FAITH 

GURTEJ SINGH 

A brief appraisal of the opinions of historians of the Sikhs and 

prominent writers about the political concerns of Guru Nanak, may 

form a proper beginning of the present undertaking. 

Early historians of the Sikhs generally refused to read a political 

content in the message of Guru Nanak. 1 It is not a coincidence that 

these are also the supporters of the contemporary British Empire 2 It 

appears that Cunnigham was the first to doubt the veracity of such 

observations and speaking of Guru Arjan, wrote, “he was the first 

who clearly understood the wide import of the teachings of Nanak, 

or who perceived how applicable they were to every state of life and 

to every condition of society”. 3 Indu Bhushan Banerjee while agreeing 

that, “the future Sikh nation grew on the foundations provided by 

Nanak” would not assent with Cunningham that “Guru Nanak had 

some original distinctiveness which alone could provide the basis of 

the nation”, 4 This position runs counter to the underlying thesis of his 

book and can; in part, be legitimately attributed to his desire to save 

Guru Nanak for Hinduism as a reformer within its fold. 

Arnold Toynbee held Guru Hargobind responsible for violating 

the “spiritual trust” of his predecessors by entertaining vulgar worldly 

ambitions” and for transforming the “embryonic church into embryonic 

state”. 5 It is however apparent that he was under a compulsion to fit 

Sikh history into a framework he had contrived for it. It is now fairly 

well established that his views in this regard are inadequate as well as 

untenable even within framework of his own formulation.’ 6 

Generally it is true to say that those who were able to distinguish 

“that Sikhism should be regarded as a new and separate world-religion 

rather than as a reformed sect of Hindus” 7 

61

are the same who also could appreciate “something positive and 

realistic” about Guru Nanak’s work which is indicative of “a religion 

and a state”. 8 

Sikh literati including men of history, literature, philosophy and 

theology have always been more explicit and have all along discerned 

pronounced political currents in the thought of Guru Nanak. Ganda 

Singh considers him to be “the founder of the militant church of 

Sikhism”. 9 Along with Teja Singh, he is of the opinion that during the 

entire period of development there was “no break, no digression in 

the programme of Sikh life”. 10 Mohan Singh, studying the writings of 

Gurus, could discern only “difference of accent” from Guru Nanak 

to Guru Gobind Singh. 11 Sita Ram accepts Babarvani verses to be the 

“first…..voice against oppression” 12 

Sher Singh dealing with the philosophy of Sikhism, opines that 

inspite of the development of two hundred years, the basic doctrinal 

truths, which had been preached by Guru Nanak, remained the same. 13 

Kapur Singh observes about the formation of Khalsa that “it was a 

logical development and entelechy of the teachings of Guru Nanak”. 14 

Kartar Singh sums up the generally held view about the political concerns 

of Guru Nanak when he says that he would have reacted to oppressions 

sword in hand like Guru Gobind Singh if he likewise had the nation at his 

back. 15 

Any analysis of Guru Nanak’s views must begin by first noting his emphatic 

claim to prophethood. Disclaiming a worldly preceptor, he accepted God 

as a original and true Guru to be his sole Teacher . 16 Claiming direct and 

intimate touch with Reality, he asserted that he had been specifically 

commissioned by God to disseminate Knowledge of the Divine. 17 While 

emphasizing direct inspiration he goes to say,’I have been given a permanent 

revenue free grant by God himself and others who claim spiritual status 

are mere temporary tenants’. 18 Everything that he uttered was therefore 

directly inspired and explicitly sanctioned by God. 19 It could hardly be 

otherwise, for, ‘One may speak of Him if one has seen the unseeable 

One, or else preaching is to no purpose. 20 His mandate to interpret the 

Will of God was upheld and his status of a prophet was insisted upon by 

the succeeding Gurus 21 and Sikh theologians including Bhai Gurdas and 

Mani Singh. 22 “The Truth which filled his mind was not borrowed from 

books; it came to him as illumination of his entire life”, and while scholars 

wrangle loudly over the questions of influences,”so says 

62

Nanak, so says Nanak is the burden of his songs”. 23 

Political views of the Guru are also intimately connected to his 

acceptance of this world as real and a legitimate sphere of activity for 

a man of religion. He realized that the ‘Omnipresent One lives in His 

creation and pervades it in all directions.’ 24 

Wherever he looked he ‘found the Merciful one whose very shadow 

the earth is’. 25 Guru therefore denounced asceticism and advocated 

the fulsome life of a house-holder setting the example himself by, in 

addition, accepting the secular professions of a civil servant and an 

agriculturist. His concern for the material world was as great as his 

preoccupation with the spiritual one and he essentially sought to secure 

the next by worth while social and political activity in this 26 ‘Those 

who serve others in this world are respectfully received in the next’ 27 

Guru reproached Bhangarnath for having renounced the world and 

held life in society to be a precondition for spiritual attainment. 28 His 

favourite expression for ideal balance is that one must live unsoiled by 

the dross but in the midst of everything as the swan lives in water 

without getting wet. 29 

In relation to activity in this world, the most significant and 

frequent description of God by Guru Nanak is in a vocabulary befitting 

an emperor . 30 He consistently addresses Him as “my king, true king, 

and king of kings, He has his court, His throne and His palace. He is 

the sole Sovereign and sole Wazir. He has his eight-metal coin, the 

Word. To Him belongs real command; all power and praise belong to 

Him alone Indeed to find honour in His court is the aim of human 

life”. 31 God is the only Sovereign entitled to the allegiance of mankind. 32 

True Sovereign performs truly sovereign functions of destroying the 

evil doers 33 and of promoting the good. 34 He dispenses even handed 

justice. Together, these constitute the aim of all earthly political activity. 

Essentially because soul’s innate and intense desire to know God 

and to become one with His cannot be fulfilled otherwise. There are 

several passages of the Guru describing this yearning. 35 Those who 

feel no such yearning are termed as animals wrapped In human skin. 36 

As a Guru the knower of Reality, he prescribes that for successful 

catering of this divine inclination of the soul, a seeker must here and 

now attain the status of a liberated one. In terms of individual 

personality and psyche, the exercise seeks the complete and absolute 

transformation of both. The process is variously expressed by Guru 

Nanak as that of ‘rust being turned 

63

into gold’ 37 of’ ghosts and animals being transformed into angels’ 38 

and of ‘a crow becoming a swan.’ 39 This miracle according to the Guru 

is to be attained by successfully imbibing attributes which the knowing 

Guru has revealed to be those of God. For a human being that is the 

only method of living in God. The unusual metaphor describing the state 

is, ‘companions of the Guru have become philosopher’s stone on coming 

in contact with philosopher’s stone’. 40 There are specific references in the 

form of particular illustrations like the suggestions that by contemplating 

on the Fearless One, one becomes fearless. The culmination is to become 

like the One you serve. 41 

There is much in Guru Nanak which establishes that the vital process 

must remain a dead letter unless political conditions conducive to it prevail. 

Victims of Babar’s invasion for instance are in no position to serve God. 42 

The opportunity is also denied to those overrun by an alien culture. 43 The 

Guru is emphatic that no religious activity under such circumstances is 

possible at all. It is obviously the duty of a God-oriented man to take 

effective measures so that such contingency does not arise. Significantly, 

he rules out divine intervention for the purpose. 44 The obligation to 

perceive evil and to engage it in battle with a view to eradicating it is 

solely that of a man of God. Guru is not averse to the use of force for the 

purpose and advocates active resistance in even contest; he deplores that 

the natives did not repel the sinning hordes of the invader Babar. 45 

Those who are called upon to rule too have their obligations. Nothing 

comes to anyone as a result only of his striving, by performing penances 

or by observing rituals but in accordance with His will (hukam) and by His 

grace (nadr). He creates everyone; 46 elevates as well as degrades. 47 Rulers 

must e spiritually wide awake people, who constantly live in values derived 

from revealed attributes of God, otherwise they are base pretenders. 48 

Firm commitment to justice and equity alone makes rulership legitimate. 

The exercise of sovereign power must also be free of evils pointed out by 

the Guru. There are loud and strong suggestions in Guru Nanak which 

indicate that a rular loses the right to rule when he fails to comply with the 

above requirements. 49 This loss of mandate is to be taken seriously by 

men of religion who must execute the command. 

It is in the context of the above discussion that some of the most 

poignant political comments of Guru Nanak must be 

64

interpreted. He has mentioned martyrdom in war amongst the accepted 

modes of attaining salvation. 50 He is certain that under certain circumstances 

it is more honourable to resist and die than just to live on. 51 Most 

significantly he recommends dying for a cause of God stating a person 

who dies thus attains summum bonum. 52 In an oft repeated couplet he requires 

a lover of God, to be ready to sacrifice his head on the path of love. 53 

In an ideal political set up, grave duties are cast upon a man of God. 

He must fully appreciate the conditions under which a mandate to rule is 

granted. It is his pious religious duty to discern when it has been violated. 

There is also no doubt that the attainment of summum bonum by him 

squarely depends upon his promptness and willingness to execute the 

command of God withdrawing the mandate. No sacrifice is to be 

considered too great for the purpose. If one shirks one’s duty in this regard, 

one is no man of religion, does not live in the light of God and exists only 

at the animal level wasting the unique opportunity given for salvation. 

From his utterances it is possible to precisely enumerate some of the 

evils the Guru would like the people to resist. Denial of justice, oppression, 

arbitrary curtailment of right to life, dishonouring of women, plunder, 

undermining the accepted social norms of a cohesive group are amongst 

the specific forms of evil the Guru abhors. Many of the above are 

mentioned in the Babarvani verses. 54 

Conclusions: The most significant single factor in the political thought 

of Guru Nanak is the firm belief that an individual cannot tread the 

spiritual path alone, that eventually salvation outgrows the bonds of 

personal relationship of the individual with God and must take the society, 

social and political organisations into account. His teachings which make 

life in society a pre-condition to spiritual fulfilment, exclude the possibility 

of regarding the highest worldly position as incompatible with the purest 

spiritual life in fact, it is possible to suggest that Guru Nanak considers 

politics to be the ultimate test of faith. 

For Guru Nanak the sole aim of individual existence on earth is the 

attainment of the highest spiritual status or consciousness. Consequently, 

the ultimate aim of social and political activity as envisaged is 

to facilitate its attainment. Accordingly, for him, such activity 

becomes meaningful and relevant if it seeks the spiritual 

welfare of the people and only in proportion to the extent it serves 

65

to bring it about. 

He, however, denies to the state the power to regulate matters of 

spirituality or conscience. He resents such interferences by the 

contemporary state and some of his most vehement denunciations are in 

this context. 55 He advocated that the primary allegiance of a man of God 

must be to righteousness, truth and conscience and denied the claim of 

the state exclusively to rule over the souls of its citizens. His ideal appears 

to be a sovereign individual in the image of God he worships and imitates 

as a matter of religious discipline. Constituted as it was, political authority 

is consistently disregarded by him and is held directly responsible for many 

ills of contemporary society. On emerging from the river Vein after 

receiving his commission to prophethood, he made a statement repudiating 

allegiance to a temporal power. The messengers came and said, ‘Nanak 

the Khan has summoned you’ and Baba Nanak replied, ‘he is your Khan, 

what do I care for him.’ 56 It was perfectly in line with his pronouncement: 

‘he who stands in the presence of God needs to bow to no other.’ 57 

From heartfelt laments about violation of other people’s culture by 

powerful aliens, which abound in Guru’s bani, it is legitimate to conclude 

that Guru’s concept of basic political organization revolves around the 

cultural cohesiveness of a people. He would have society as a 

conglomeration of such units with inviolate autonomy existing freely and 

so regulated as to be without an inclination or an opportunity to violate 

any other similar unit. 

Guru Nanak is imbused with the concept of intrinsic worth of human 

personality. He believes that an individual, with the help of God, can 

transcend his baser self. He is certain that by right conduct, incessant 

striving, rigorous discipline and God’s grace, an individual can lift himself 

to divine status. That is the gurmukh, the sadh, the jiwan mukta, the ruler or 

panch - in a word the ideal man. of Guru Nanak and Guru Granth. 

God as love stands for peace and harmony in his creation. It is His 

Will that those who love him must not await a miracle to restore peace. It 

is the knower of the Will, the gurmukh, who must execute it and restore 

normalcy. He must be the shelter of the shelterless, a refuge for the weak, 

as God showers His grace where the weak are supported. 

66

REFERENCES 

1 For instance, Sir Charles Gough accuses other writers of Sikhs of telling “more than they 

knew”. And though he himself wrote less than a page and a half on Guru Nanak in a book 

relating to Sikh Wars, still ventured an opinion that the Guru founded a “sect entirely 

religious without any political aim or organization”. 

Gough, Sir C and Arthur D. Innes, The Sikhs and the Sikhs Wars, A.D. Innes & Cov., London 

1897, V.18. 

Payne who did not understand Guru Granth and found it unreadable, had no access to 

Guru’s Word nevertheless observed that Guru Nanak did not “profess to be the founder of 

a new nation, his purpose was ethical not political” 

Payne, CH., A Short History of the Sikhs, Thomas, Nelson and Sons, London, 29 and 25. 

Same could be said of others of the above category including General John J.H. Gordon, 

The Sikhs, Blackwood & Sons, London 1904, 24 and of W.L.M. Gregor, The History of the 

Sikhs, Vol, James Madden, London 1846,39,44. 

2. Some modern historians of the Sikhs like Reverend W.H. McLeod also fall in this category. 

3. Cunnigham, Joseph Davey, A History of The Sikhs, John Murray, London 1849, 53. This 

position appears to have been taken hesitantly as it is also observed by him that the Guru 

had no clear views on “political advancement.” Ibid., 48. 

4. Indubhushan Banerjee: Evolution of The Khalsa, A. Mukherjee & Co. (Private) Ltd., Calcutta 

(2nd Edn.) May 1963, 19. 

5. Cf. Toynbee, Arnold J., Study of History, 10 Vols., Oxford University Press, 1935-54, 

V 187, 665-67, 673, VII 414-415, VIII 466. 

6. Cf. Singh, Kapur, Prasaraprasna, Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar 1988, 

197-206. 

See review by Daljeet Singh “The Sikhs - “History, Religion and Society by W.H. Mcleod”, 

The Panjab Past and Present, Punjabi University, Patiala, April 1989, 250-59 for discussion on 

position of Sikh ism on the issue. 

also cf. Grewal, J.S., “Toynbee’s Interpretation of Sikh History”, Punjab History Conference, 

Patiala 1969,304-10. 

7. Field, Dorothy, The Religion of The Sikhs, (1901) (Reprint) Ess Ess Publications, Delhi 

1976, 10 and 60. 

8. Archer, J.C, The Sikhs in Relation to Hindus, Moslems, Christians and Ahmadiyas,Princeton 

University Press, 1946,60-61. 

9. Singh, Ganda, “The Maratha-Sikh Relations”, The Panjab past and Present, Punjab! University, 

Patiala, October 1967, 311. 

10. A Short History of The Sikhs, Orient Longmans Ltd. Bombay, 1950, 14. 

11. An Introduction to Panjabi Literature, Amritsar 1951, 65-66. 

12. “Nanak Bani Vich Phalsafa”, Madh Kalin Punjabi Sahit, (Pbi), Bhasha Vibhag, Patiala 1970, 

64. 

Singh, Lal: “Guru Nanak da Shahkar”, Shabdarath Bani Guru Nanak Dev Ji, (Pbi), Bhasha 

Vibhag, Patiala 1970, 31 comment on Babarvani verses is that they represent “a revolutionary 

call... sharpened on the spiritual sharpener to become a sword’s edge”. 

13. Gurmat Darshan (Pbi) Shromani Gurdwara Prabandhak Comittee, Amritsar, 1962 

67

14. Cf. Preface to Prasharprasna, Hind Publishers Ltd., Jullunder, 1959, 12. 

15. Use of Guru Nanak Dev, Lahore Book Shop, Ludhiana, 1958,231 f.n. 

16. Sorath, Guru Granth, 599. 

Aprampar parbrahm parmeshar Nanak gur milia soi jio. 

also, Ramkali, Guru Granth, 878. 

Gur Parmeshar Nanak bhetio sache sabad nibera. 

17. Var Majh, Guru Granth, 148. 

Hau dhadi bekar kare laiya. Rat dihai kai var dhurhu farmaiya. Dhadi sache mahal khasam 

bulaiya.Sachi sift salah kapra paiya. 

18. Guru Granth, 1286. 

19. Tilang, Guru Granth, 722. 

Jaisi mai avai khasam ki bani taisra kari gian ve Lalo. 

also Wadhans, ibid., 566. 

Ta mai khaiya kaihan ja tujhai kahaiya. 

20. Gauri, ibid., 222. 

Adist disai ta kahia jae. 

Bin dekhe kaihna birtha jae. 

21. Gauri M.IV, ibid., 308 

Satgur ki bani sat sat kar janhu gursikhu 

har karta apmuhhu kadhae. 

Gauri ki Var M.IV, ibid., 306. 

Ih akhar tin akhia jini jagat sabh upaia. 

Sorath M.V Guru Granth 628. 

Dhur ki bani aae tin sagli chint mitai. 

22. Bhattan de Swaiye, Guru Granth, 1395. 

Ap narayan kaladhar jag mahi parvario. 

Ibid., 1408. 

Jot rup ap Guru Nanak kahaio. 

Varan Bhai Gurdas Ji, (Pbi.), Shromani Gurudwara Prabandhak Committee, February 

1952, Var I Pauri 35. 

Ik baba akal rup. 

Mani Singh, Bhai, Sikhan di Bhagatmala, (Pbi.). 

Khalsa Samachar, February 1955, 90. 

Jis nirnakar da vichar devte brahmadik nahin pai sakde so Guru Nanak ji hain. 

23. Sesagiri Rao, K.L., “Guru Nanak and The Hindu Heritage”, The Journal of Religious Studies, 

Punjabi University, Patiala, September 1969, 48. 

24. Srirag, Guru Granth, 83-84. 

Kudrat kar ke vassia soi. 

Jeh dhir dekha teh dhir mauzood. 

25. Maru, Guru Granth, H138. 

Jam dekha taih din dayala.... 

Jag tis ki chhaya jis bap na maya. 

26. Ramali, Guru Granth, 952. 

Karni bajhon bhist na pai. 

27. Srirag, Guru Granth, 26. 

Vich dunian sev kamaie ta dargah baisan paie. 

68

28. Varan Bhai Gurdas Ji, op. cit. 20. 

29. Sidh Gosht, Ramkali, Guru Granth, 938. 

Jaise jal meh kamal nralamu murgai naisane. 

30. For an almost complete compilation of such terms see Sekhon, Sant Singh, 

Madh KaHn punjabi Sahit,(PbL), Bhasha Vibhag, Patiala 1970, 118-26. 

31. Grewal, J.S., Guru Nanak in History, Panjab University, Chandigarh 1969, 

148-49. 

32. Suhi, Guru Granth, 729. 

Ja kau mahal hajur dujaia nivai kis. 

33. Maru, Guru Granth, 1028. 

Asur sangharan ram hamara. 

34. Gauri, Ibid., 224. 

Daint sanghar sant nistare. 

Sri Rag, ibid., 59. 

Sukh data dukh metno satgur asur sanghar. 

cf. also Gauri, ibid., 224-25. 

35. One such passage is found in Rag Wadhans, ibid., 557-58. 

36. Malhar, ibid., 1284. 

Pasu manas chum plete androh kalia 

Suhi, ibid., 751. 

Mul na bujhan apna se pasua se dhor jio. 

37. Maru, ibid., 990. 

Bhaia manur kanchan phir hovai je gur mile tineha. 

38. Parbhati, ibid., 1329. 

Satgur paaiai pura navan pasu prethu dev kare. 

39. Srirag ki var, ibid., 91. 

Jo tis bhavai Nanka kagu hans kare. 

40. Basant, ibid., 1172. 

Paras bhet bhae se paras Nanak har gur sang thiai. 

41. Gauri, ibid., 223. 

Bhai rach rahe so nirbhauhoai. 

Jaisa seve taiso hoai. 

Ramkali, ibid., 931. 

Jin jata so tis hi jeha. Ibid., 936. 

Tin hi jaisithee rahan jap jap ridai murar. 

Sidh Gosht, ibid., 943 (cf. also Freedkot Wala Teeka, Bhasha Vibhag, Patiala 1970, 

p.1940). Anhat sunn ratte se kaisai Jis le upje tahi hi jaisai 

42. Rag Asa, Guru Granth, 417. 

Ik na wakhat khuha ikna puja jae.... 

Ram na kabhu chetia hun kahni na milai khudai 

43. Ramkali, ibid., 903. 

Kal puran Kateb kuran 

Pothi pandit rahe pura. 

69

Nanak nao bhaia rahman. 

Basant, ibid., 1191. 

Ad purakh kau alllah kahiai sekhan aai vari. 

Deval devtian kar laga aisi kirat chali. 

Dhanasari, ibid., 662. 

Thaanast jag bhrisht heo dubta iv jag. 

Khatrain ta dharam chhodia malechh bhakhai gahi. 

Srisht sabh ik varan hoi dharam gat rahi. 

44. Rag Asa, ibid., 360. 

Eti mar pai kurlane tain ki darad na aaiya 

cf. also Guru Granth 417, 418. 

45. Rag Asa, ibid., 

360 Ratan vigar vigoai kutti muia sar na kaai. 

Ibid., 417. 

Aggo de je chetie ta leait mile sajaai. 

46. Japji, Guru Granth, 7. 

Jor na raj mal man sor. 

Wadhans, ibid., 566. 

Sarbai samana ap tuhai dhande laiya. 

Ik na tujh Id kiai rajai ikna bhikh bhavaiya. 

Asa, ibid., 472. 

Ik nihali pai savan ikna upar rahan kharai. 

47. Ibid., 472. 

Nadr upathi je karai sultana gha karaida. 

48. Japji, ibid., 3 

Panch parvan. Panch pardhan, 

Panchai pavhi dargahai man, 

Panchai sohai dar rajan. 

49. Asa, Guru Granth,417-18. 

Jis no ap khuvai learta khus laai changiai.... 

Jin ki chiri dargahi phati tinha mama bhai.... 

Jai tis bhavai dai wadUiai jai bhavai dai sajai. 

50. Var Asa, Guru Granth, 467. 

Lakh surtan sangram ran mahi chhutai pran. 

51. Guru Granth, 142 

Je jivai pat lathi jai 

Sabh haram jeta kichh khaai. 

52. Wadhans, ibid., 579-80. 

Mahli jaai pavhu khasmai bhavhu rang sio ralian manei… 

Maran Mansa suria haq hai mam parvano. 

53. Slok Varan te Wadhik, Guru Granth, 1412. 

Jau tau praim khailan lea chau, 

Sir dhar tali gali more ao. 

54. Popularly known as Babarvani verses are four in number. Three have been 

composed in Rag Asa by Guru Nanak and one is in Rag Tilang. Altogether they add up to 

ninety-nine lines. 

In greater part of these verses, Guru describes the woes of an unequal contest. 

70

He sees it as potentiality of the evil to triumph and perpetuate itself if inadequately 

resisted. He redicules the efforts of those who pretended to provide supernatural support 

against the offenders, and advises that being adequately prepared to resist is better preparation 

against such an eventuality. He exhorts the victims not to be overawed by the barbarian 

hordes, as their success, being in violation of God’s Will, is ephemeral. They would soon 

reap what they had sown if resisted effectively by the God-oriented. 

Brutal violation of a people, their culture and religion agitates him much. A third part of 

the verses is devoted to depicting the sad plight of women which has particularly moved 

him. He considers it to be the consequences of evil being given a free hand. The victims 

have not made adequate preparation, have been lured to life of wanton luxury, and 

material pursuits, lived in ignorance of God’s Will, so they must share the responsibility for 

what is happening to them. 

Guru prefers a people capable of protecting the honour of their women-folk and maintaining 

their religious, political and cultural heritage inviolate. 

God is unequivocally accepted as the final arbiter in political power, as in everything else. 

55. Rag Asa Guru Granth, 470 

Kal main bed atharban hua nam khudai al/ah bhaiaa.... 

Var Malar ibid., 1288. 

Hansan bajan te sikdaran ehna pria nao. 

Fadkhi lagi jat fahainagai nahi thao. 

Dhanasari ibid., 662. 

Thanst jag bhrisht hoe dupta iv jag. 

56. Puratan lanamsakhi Bhai Vir Singh (ed)., Khalsa Samachar, Amritsar 1971,43. 

See also, Bhalla, Sarup Das, Guru Nanak Mahima, (Pbi.) (Reprint) Bhasha 

Vibhag 1970,34. 

57. Rag Suhi, Guru Granth, 729. 

la Kau mahal hajur dujai nivai kis. 

71

7 

GURU NANAK IN HISTORY OF RELIGIOUS THOUGHT 

KHARAK SINGH 

I. Introduction 

1.1 This paper primarily gives a brief outline of the Sikh 

ideology, as expounded in the bani of Guru Nanak, recorded in the 

Guru Granth Sahib. The object is to explain how this ideology differs 

from the earlier traditions, and to highlight how Guru Nanak completely 

rejected the world-view of earlier dichotomous religions, giving instead 

a new ideology combining the spiritual life with the empirical life of 

man, based on his own revelation. This radical departure marked the 

beginning of a new faith. In fact, Guru Nanak’s system, his concept 

of God and His creation, the fundamental principles of his faith, his 

analysis of the problems of mankind, his views on the purpose of 

human life and its specific goal alongwith methodology for its 

attainment, and his over-all world-view, constitute what is admittedly 

the latest in the succession of major religions of the world. A few 

studies dealing with some of these aspects, have recently appeared. 

Towards the end of this paper the validity of interpretations contained 

therein will be examined. 

II. The Sikh Ideology 

2.1 In explaining the Sikh ideology, as Guru Nanak’s ideology 

is now called, we shall discuss only its major elements like the Guru’s 

concept of God, his views about the reality of the world, the goal of 

life he fixes for the religious man, the methodolgy prescribed for 

following the religious path, and the essentials of the duties and 

responsibilities of the seeker and god-man, referred to in the bani as 

gurmukh or sachiara. 

2.2 Concept of God: Some earlier systems like Yoga, Sankhya 

and ]ainism, were dualistic, assuming two kinds of reality, namely, 

Atman (spiritual) and Prakirti (material). Man was considered a 

combination of both, and belief in God as a single 

72

73 

ceative basic reality was conspicuous by its absence. Sankra’s system is 

strictly monistic, and the world and its activities are considered ‘unreal’ or 

Mithya. Still other systems were pantheistic, and attached no spiritual value 

to the moral life. On the other hand, Guru Nanak’s religion is 

uncompromisingly monotheistic. In the very Mul Mantra God is described 

as ‘the sole One, the Creator, Self-existent and Immanent, Un-incarnated 

and Timeless’. God is the Creator of the universe, which is separate from 

Him and not His emanation. He is Transcendent as well Immanent in His 

creation. He looks after His creation benevolently and is happy to 

do so”. 1 He feeds all,’ even those created in water’. 2 His benevolence 

knows no bounds. He continues to be gracious and never tires of doing 

so, although those who receive might., 3 He is the ‘Ocean of Virtues’ 4 . He 

is all Love, the rest He is ineffable. 5 In truth, Love is His language’. 6 He 

has a Will, which is altruistic. ‘Everybody is under His Will. Nobody is 

outside its scope. 7 Only by recognizing and following His Will, can the 

wall of falsehood, which separates man from Him, be demolished., 8 

Implications of belief in such a God are clear for the seeker. The seeker 

must see His immanence in all fellow beings. He must love the entire 

humanity as His creation, and express this love through service. This is 

the way how one can carry out His altruistic Will. 

2.3 Reality of the World: In Sankra’s Vedanta, which has dominated 

the Indian religious thought for a very long time, the world is Mithya or 

‘unreal’. It does not deserve to be taken seriously, since its existence is an 

illusion. Buddha looked at the world as a place of suffering. In contrast, 

Guru Nanak asserted that the world is ‘real’ as a creation of the Creator, 

the True One. He says: 

True and holy are Thy continents and universes; 

True and holy are Thy worlds and the forms created by Thee; 

True and holy are Thy doings and Thy contemplations; 

True and holy is Thy Decree and Thy Court 

True and holy is Thy Ordinance, Thy command; 

True and Holy is thy Grace and the mark thereof. 

Holy Lord, millions upon millions supplications to Thee I utter. 

By the might and strength of the holy Lord subsist all. 

Holy is Thy laudation, holy Thy praise. 

Holy King, true and holy is Thy creative might, 9 

Holy Himself, holy all existence 

Of this the Master by the holy Word realization has granted., 10 

Guru Nanak does not regard the world as a place of misery.

He says: 

He created night and day, seasons and occassions; 

So also Air, water, Fire and the Nether regions: 

Amidst these has He fixed the earth, 

the place for Righteous Action: 11 

This world is the chamber of the Holy Lord; 

It is His abode., 12 

Else where the world has been referred to as ‘bhum rangavali, 13 

(colourful earth), and ‘phullan ki baghaat’ (garden of flowers). God has 

been praised for His innumerable gifts available in this world. In contrast 

to the earlier belief that human birth was a punishment for past actions, 

Guru Nanak looked upon it as a rare opportunity to meet the Lord. 

Constantly he reminds us to avail overselves of this opportunity, so that 

the ‘jewel’ of human life is not wasted. The emphasis is on taking the 

world seriously, since it is real. 

2.4 Goal of Life: In Sankhya, as also in Yoga and Jainism, where 

no God is assumed, the goal is isolation of the spirtual monad from the 

material element. In Sankra’s Vedanta the goal is realisation of the self, 

recognizing the unreality of world. In Buddhism the goal is’Nirvan or 

liberation from the cycle of transmigration or the cycle of birth, life and 

death. All these goals and even merger with the ultimate spiritual Reality, 

are strictly individual and to a degree personal or selfish. These demand 

withdrawal from life and imply a complete lack of concern for the society. 

These goals were, therefore, not acceptable to Guru Nanak. In Guru 

Nanak’s bani the ideal man has been referred to as gunnukh or sachiara. In 

]apu ]i the Guru asks :’ How to become a sachiara ? And how to break the 

wall of falsehood that separates a man from the Lord?, 14 He himself 

answers :’By moving according to His Will and Ordinance: The gurmukh 

recognizes the altruistic Will of God, and is completely attuned to it. God 

is all Love, and so is the gurmukh. This love is expressed in the form of 

altruistic deeds or service of mankind. The gunnukh is characterised by his 

unbounded enthusiasm for service and sacrifice for others 15 . He is 

conscious of the immanence of God in all beings. He has no trace of 

selfishness. The Guru’s deep concern for the entire humanity, was voiced 

by the Fourth Guru when he said: ‘O Lord, the world is in flames. Save it 

by whatever means you may be pleased to do it: 16 His concern is so 

genuine, that any claim for exclusive prophethood does not even cross his 

mind. Following his Guru, the motto of the gunnukh is ‘ aap mukt, mukt 

kare sansar’ 17 (Salvation of the entire humanity along with his 

74

own, is his goal) 2.5 The Path: The methodology or the discipline and 

practices, prescribed in Guru Nanak’s system for the achievement of the 

goal, are completely different from those of earlier faiths. Practically all 

the previous religious systems laid stress on withdrawal from life, and 

asceticism was considered essential for spiritual progress. Since world was 

considered mithya or unreal and a place of suffering, withdrawal was the 

only course for liberation. Dichotomy between the spiritual and empirical 

life was complete. The Naths or Yogis took three oaths at the time of 

initiation, namely, living on alms (following no occupation), celibacy, and 

Ahimsa. In Buddhism life as a Bhikshu (one who lives on bhiksha or 

alms), enjoyed high merit. The same was the case with monks in Jainism. 

The Sanyas or Varanashram dharma among the Hindus was also a 

compromise between the ascetic and the empirical requirements of life. 

Guru Nanak rejected the notion that worldly activities were a hindrance 

to spiritual progress. His thesis was that the two are not only compatible, 

but they are complementary and essential to each other. This was a complete 

break from the old tradition developed over more than two thousand 

years. Since Guru Nanak’s ideal man, Gunnukh, is attuned to the Will of 

God, recognition and carrying of out His altruistic Will must constitute 

the substance of the discipline required to achieve that state or the Gunnukh 

pad. His Will manifests itself in looking after His creation. So Guru Nanak 

prescribed the path of a householder for his disciples., involving marriage, 

children, looking after a family, and work to earn a living. He decried the 

parasitic life of Yogis and other ascetics, who live on begging. The Guru 

says: 

‘The egoist in a fit of passion deserting home is ruined. And then 

at others’ home casts covetous glances. His householder’s duty he neglects; 

Devoid of contact with the holy Preceptor, in a whirlpool of false thinking 

is he fallen’ . 18 

He asks the Yogi,” Are you not ashamed of begging from door to 

door ?” Again he says about the ascetic: “He sets out to instruct the 

world; his mind is blind, and begging from door to door he loses his 

honour,, 19 . Guru Amardas later explained it thus: ‘If I become a Yogi and 

wandering in the world, beg from door to door how shall I settle so many 

accounts, when called upon to do so ?,, 20 Rejecting mendicancy Guru 

Nanak prescribes his own solution in the following hymn: 

“One, incapable of earning a living, gets ears slit like yogis: 

75

Practises mendicancy giving up caste identity, 

Claiming to be a religious teacher, and goes out to beg, 

Touch not his feet. 

Those that eat the bread of their labour 

and share their earnings with others 

Saith Nanak, they truly recognize the way.” 21 

This is indeed a revolutionary idea, and the Yogis’ objection to it 

is represented in the famous question asked by them: ‘O Nanak, why 

have you added.Kanji (of worldly life) to the(sacred) milk (of spirituality)?” 22 

Kanji is an acidic ferment of black carrots, which spoils milk, rendering it 

unfit for consumption. The Guru explained to them how they had missed 

the very elements of spirituality from their very initiation. The Guru also 

took them to task for their escapism and for neglecting their duties towards 

their fellowmen. 

2.6 The Guru also defined what kind of house-holder his disciples 

should be : 

‘The true householder must his faculties restrain: 

should beg of God to grant him prayer, 

austerities and self-discipline: 

Should ind uce himself to good chairtable deeds 

Such householder is pure as Ganga water.,, 23 

He warned against acquisitiveness, accumulation of wealth and 

self-indulgence or what is called consumerism, pointing out that ‘wealth 

without evil-doing comes not, but in death it accompanies him not’. The 

emphasis is on charity or sharing the earnings from hard and honest work, 

with the needy. Saith Nanak: ‘In the hereafter is received reward for what 

man from his own earnings offers’. 

2.7 Sikhism is often referred to as a structure based on three pillars, 

namely,Naam Japna (Remembering God or dedication to Him), dharam di 

kirat karna(work through righteous means), and vand chhakna (Sharing one’s 

earnings with others). It is only a householder’s life that offers all the three 

opportunities together. He earns for his own living and shares it with his 

own family and others in whom he sees the immanence of God, constantly 

reminding him of God. These three duties or responsibilities are conjoint 

and cannot be segregated. 

2.8 The place of honour given to a householder’s life, is a rejection 

of celibacy which was considered essential for spiritual pursuits in almost 

all other Indian religious traditions. In the Guru’s system this is an unnatural 

restriction, and is, in fact, based 

76

on a hatred of women. This had led to the inferior status being accorded 

to women by practicall y all religious leaders before Guru Nanak. 

2.9 Guru did not preach the householder’s way of life merely 

through words. He actually lived it to set an example for his followers. He 

established a colony at Kartarpur,and settled as a peasent, working with 

his own hands, and involving other members of the community. The 

produce was shared by all including those who came from outside. He ran 

a common kitchen which was open to all. 

2.10 Emphasis on Deeds and Truthful Living: This is one of the most 

important features of Guru Nanak’s religion. Truth and its knowledge are 

stressed in most faiths. In fact, knowledge of Truth or Gian is the goal of 

some religions, the highest thing attainable. Guru Nanak, however, is not 

satisfied with knowledge of truth alone. ‘Truth is higher than everything. 

Higher still is true living., 24 Truth has to be practised in the form of good 

deeds. ‘Good and bad deeds are not things merely to be discussed. Each 

action is recorded for later life’. 25 Approval or rejection by God is 

determined on the basis of one’s actions. This is understood easily, when 

one considers the fact that Guru Nanak’s religion was based upon his 

mystic experience with the Ultimate Reality as Love. Love cannot be 

exercised or expressed in a vacuum. It can be practised in a becoming 

world and can be expressed only in virtuous actions or deeds. ‘By service 

in this world, shall ye get a place at the Divine Portal.’ 26 

2.11 Naam : There are repeated references to Naam in the hymns 

of Guru Nanak. But it does not mean merely a mechanical repetition or 

muttering of a word or a name. It denotes a realization of the immanence 

of God, and expresses itself in devotion to or service of His creation or 

one’s fellow beings. It does not mean idle samadhi or prolonged one-point 

meditation, which the Guru declares as futile. This is not to say that 

uttering of the Lord’s name is of no use. However, it has value only if it 

is an expression of one’s love for Him, and leads to altruistic deeds, in 

accordance with His altruistic Will. Altruistic work is His worship. 

2.11 Equality of Human Beings: Guru Nanak’s concept of human 

equality can rarely be surpassed. ‘ I consider all men high and I acknowledge 

none as low. One God has fashioned all the vessels, one light pervades 

the whole creation. One findeth this truth by His grace, no one can efface 

His gift., 27 Guru Nanak 

77

ejected thousands-of-year-old caste system sanctioned by the Vedas and 

other religious scriptures. ‘Vain chatter is the boast of caste, vain chatter 

is the boast of fame. All living beings are under the protection of One. If 

one maketh himself known a good man, it will be true only, Nanak, when, 

his faith is approved by the Lord., 28 ‘Caste can gain nothing. Truth within 

will be tested., 29 ‘Appreciate the Light, do not ask the caste, there is no 

caste hereafter’. 30 Caste and power are of no avail hereafter. On their 

account nobody is honoured, or dishonoured for want of them. Those 

alone will be deemed good, whose faith receives His approval 31 . Guru 

took Bhai Mardana, a low caste Muslim as his companion in his famous 

Udasis or world travels, to set a practical example. He laid the foundation 

of a casteless society by organising a Sangat (society or congregation) and 

langar (refectory) or pangat open to all castes. Such sangats he organised 

wherever he went. He rarely lost an opportunity to denounce any 

discrimination based on caste or creed. During his visit to Eminabad, the 

Guru accepted the hospitality of a low-caste artisan in preference to a 

high-caste Chief. He declared: ‘There are lowly among the low castes, and 

the lowest among the lowly: Nanak stands by their side, and envies not 

the high-castes. Lord, Thy grace falls where the lowly are cherished.’ 32 

2.12 “Status of Women: The concept of equality of man and woman touched 

unprecedented heights with Guru Nanak. It is extremely doubtful, if 

womankind can find a greater advocate of their equality with man. Woman 

had a very inferior status in most Indian faiths. She was looked upon as a’ 

temptress’, ‘poisonous like a snake (nagini)’, ‘gateway to hell’, and was 

treated almost like a Sudra during certain periods of her normal life. Tulsi 

Das the great religious philosopher and author of Ramayana, wrote in his 

wisdom, ‘Cattle, fools, Sudras and woman are ever entitled to rebuke.’ 

Woman was considered fit only to be burned alive with her husband when 

he died. In Digambra Jainism a woman has to take another birth as man in 

order to be a candidate for salvation. Even in other major faiths of the 

times, treatment meted out to women left much to be desired. A more 

powerful case could hardly be claimed for women than the one Guru 

Nanak did in Asa di var, over five hundred years ago: 

“From woman is man born, inside her is he conceived; 

To woman is man engaged, and woman he marries. 

With woman is man’s companionship. 

78

From woman originate new generations. 

Should woman die, another is sought; 

By woman’s help is man kept in restraint. 

Why revile her of whom are born Kings (or great ones of the 

earth)? 

From woman is born woman, no human being without woman is 

born. 

Saith Nanak : The holy Eternal alone with woman can dispense.’ 33 

In Guru Nanak’s system woman enjoys perfect equality with man. When 

missionary work was organised, women were placed in charge of some 

districts. 

2.14 Socio-Political Responsibilities: Active participation in social and 

political activities is a direct corollary of the Guru’s religion of Love 

expressed through deeds, while carrying out His Will. His was a crusade 

against all evils, religious, spiritual, social, political. His teachings covered 

every dimension of human life. His scathing criticism included in its scope 

not only religious prejudices, hypocrisy and bigotry of religious leaders 

(Mullahs and Pandits), social discrimination of the upper classes, but extended 

to corruption of the administration, oppression of the rulers and tyranny 

of the invaders. He condemned the invaders as a horde of sin. He took 

the rulers to task for their unpreparedness and fall in virtue which brought 

indescribable suffering to the people. He exhorted the people to action, 

pointing out the futility of prayer alone and the worship of their deities. 

“Hindu temples and Muslim sacred spots went up in flames, 

And, princes cut to pieces with dust were mingled. 

No Moghul with such spells was struck blind; 

None by their spells was affected.’, 34 

A parallel to such intense reaction is hard to find in 

contemporary history of India. He even complained to God thus: 

“As in the agony of suffering the people wailed, 

Didst Thou feel no compassion for them? 

Listen, Thou, who art Creator of all. 

Should a powerful foe molest one equally powerful, 

Little would the mind be grieved, 

But when a ferocious tiger falls upon a herd of kine, 

Then the Master must be called to account”. 35 

The Guru’s message of socio-political responsibility is clear. His Sikh has 

thus to accept full social and political responsibility, and is enjoined upon 

to resist oppression and to protect the weak and down-trodden. That is 

the only way to express and test his love for the Lord and His creation. 

. 

79

80 

2.14 The above teachings should leave no doubt that Guru 

Nanak’s methodology for attaining the status of gurmukh or suchiara, is 

based upon love of God and His creation expressed through virtuous 

actions. There is no place for dichotomy between the spiritrual and the 

empirical life of man. Life has to develop as a whole. The concept of 

spiritual progress without attention to empirical aspects is untenable 

and is, therefore, rejected, as lopsided and escapist. His followers have 

to resist aggression and injustice, from whatever quarters it should 

come. Guru Nanak’s path is for the fullest development of the 

individiual as well as the society. There is no separation of religion 

from politics. The doctrine of Miri-Piri, formally symbolised by Guru 

Har Gobind at the time of his succession was in fact laid down by 

Guru Nanak, being the base of his religion. 

IIl. Misinterpretations 

3.1 Misinterpretation of the Sikh ideology is an old game. Since 

this ideology, in its essential details, was diametrically opposed to earlier 

religious beliefs, opposition started from the very times of Guru Nanak, 

and has continued upto the present day. Frequently the criticism is 

due to a lack of understanding. Quite often, however, it is the result 

of religious prejudices and arrogance of the critics. As explained earlier 

asceticism or withdrawal from life, was the hallmark of practically all 

Indian religious traditions. Guru Nanak rejected this in favour of a 

householder’s life, with emphasis on good deeds, social responsibility 

and a moral life. Naths who were champions of the earlier system, 

were probably the first to criticise the sanctity accorded by Guru Nanak 

to the householder’s way. For our present discussion, however, we shall 

first take the contrasting views of two western Scholars who about a 

century back tried to give their own understanding of the Sikh religion. 

After that we shall examine in some detail another view expressed, more 

recently. 

3.2 Macauliffe published the findings of his classic study in six 

volumes of ‘The Sikh Religion’ in 1910. He summed up the moral and 

political merit of the Sikh religion thus: 

“It prohibits idolatry, hypocrisy, caste-exclusiveness, the concremation of 

widows, the imrnurement of women, the use of wine and other 

intoxicants, tobacco smoking, infanticide, slander, pilgrimage to sacred 

rivers and tanks of Hindus; and it inculcates loyalty, gratitude for all favours 

received, philanthropy, justice, impartiality, truth, honesty and all the

was: 

moral and domestic virtues known to the holiest citizens 

of any country.’. 36 

On the originality of the Sikh religion Macauliffe’s conclusion 

“The illustrious author of the vie de Jesus asks whether great originality will 

again arise, or the world would be content to follow the paths opened by 

the daring creators of the ancient ages. Now there is here presented a religion 

totally unaffected by Semitic or Christian influences. Based on unity of God, 

it rejected Hindu formalities and adopted an independent 

ethical system, rituals and standards which were totally opposed to the 

theological beliefs of Guru Nanak’s age and country. As we shall see hereafter, 

it would be difficult to point to a religion of greater originality or to a more 

comprehensive ethical system.” 37 

3.3 The second study we want to mention is the one conducted 

by Trumpp (a German), a couple of decades earlier than Macauliffe, who 

failed to see such merit or originality as pointed out by the latter. His 

views, quoted below, were far from complimentary: 

“The Sikh Granth is a very big volume which I find incoherent 

and shallow in the extreme, and couched at the same time, in 

dark and perplexing language in order to cover these defects. 

It is for us occidentalists ,a most painful and stupefying task 

to read even a single raga”. 38 

This damaging view has been quoted to illustrate how personal 

prejudices and wrong methodology and lack of understanding, can lead 

to disastrous results. 

3.4 It is now proposed to analyse the findings of a recent publication 

that seeks to reconstruct Sikh History from Sikh literature. 39 Evidently it 

will not be possible to deal with every part of this publication. The 

comments in the following paragraphs will be confined to the views 

expressed in the book on the ideology of Guru Nanak. It is necessary to 

do so, as the interpretation presented is likely to mislead an unwary reader, 

and the book constitutes the latest attempt in the series brought out with 

the same superficial understanding as that of Trumpp. The author has 

obviously not followed any standard methodology for the study and 

presentation of Guru Nanak’s ideology, and his interpretations 

81

show a clear materialistic or Marxian influence. This partly accounts for 

most of his erroneous conclusions. 

3.5 The chapter on ‘The Bani of Guru Nanak’ begins with the 

statement: 

“In Guru Nanak’s view of universe, the unreality of the world is contrasted 

with the ‘reality of God: Once the significance of this idea is grasped it is 

possible to see that he looks upon the contemporary world as disintegrated 

and delegitimized. With this awareness begins a new ‘religious construction 

of society’ which results in the emergence of the Sikh Panth”. 40 This is 

the basic assumption on which the entire structure of his thesis is raised. 

He has not quoted any part of Guru Nanak’s bani to support it. In the 

earlier section we have quoted numerous hymns of the Guru stressing 

the reality of the universe, which need not be repeated. But the author 

has carefully suppressed all those quotations. Even in that he has not 

been that careful, since one quotation from Guru Nanak, which demolishes 

his assumption,has unwittingly appeared in his selections, viz., “Ja tu sacha 

sabh Ko sacha, Kura Koe na Koi.,, 41 Author’s own translation is, “No 

being is unture, since God is True.’ In fact Guru Nanak’s statement is 

more positive: ‘Since thou art True, all are true; None are untrue.’ 

Evidently the ‘unreality’ of the world attributed to the Guru, is a hat trick 

of the author’s imagination. The book starts with a baseless assumption, 

and thus reveals its purpose and level. The hymns quoted by him in the 

text refer to evanescence or the becoming nature of life and the worldly 

possessions. There is not even the remotest hint as to the unrealty of the 

world. In fact, the Guru refers to this world as’ dharamsal, installed in the 

midst of air water, fire and nether regions, as a place for righteous actions,. 42 

Elsewhere in the Guru Granth it is described as the ‘Lord’s chamber in which 

He dwells. 43 , He is True; so is His creation: 44 For Guru Nanak life is not merely 

real, it is very meaningful. It is a rare opportunity for meeting the Lord 45 through 

love which manifests itself in the service of His creation or man’s fellow 

beings. Love cannot be exercised in a vacuum. The object of love has to be 

real. 

3.6 The author seems to have taken his views from some earlier 

faiths like Vaishnavism, Vedanta, Nathism, etc., which do not consider the 

world as real or worthwhile and are otherworldly. May be, he is following Max 

Weber who finds all Indian religions to be life-negating. Max Weber’s failing 

was that he never examined Sikhism in coming to his conclusion. As Mark 

82

Juergensmeyer has stated, ‘had Weber examined Sikhism, he could not 

have made his sweeping observation about all Indian religions being lifenegating. 

46 

3.7 Quoting Guru Nanak the author points out: “Kings, subjects, shiqdars 

would not remain for ever. Shops, bazaars and cities would be in ruins in 

accordance with God’s Hukm.” The verses simply bring out the 

evanescence of human lifeand worldly possessions, and indicate their 

time dimension. His contention of ‘unreality’ of the world and suggested 

negativism are clearly rejected in the bani of Guru Nanak. To every student 

of the Guru Granth and the lives of the Gurus it would appear a clear 

distortion. 

3.8 At another place the author puts forward an illusory distinction,by 

resort to jugglery of words,when he says that for the Sikhs the objective 

world was not unreal but non-real. This is a distinction without a difference, 

the reality of which has no basis Obviously he is trying to imitate Sankra 

who referred to maya as mithya, which was neither saty(real) nor 

astay(unreal), but saty-asaty. There is, however, no such confusion in the 

Guru’s bani.In verse after verse he has stressed the reality of the world, 

and has repeatedly exhorted his followers to take it seriously and avail of 

the rare opportunity for fulfHment of their spiritual destiny. On page 5 

the author says: “Guru Nanak refers to palpable reality of Kaliyuga”. 

Does it not contradict his own theory of unreality of the world atttributed 

to Guru Nanak? It seems beyond the realm of reason or sense that the 

Guru who rejected, the centuries old doctrines of asceticism, monasticism, 

celibacy and ahimsa, and accepted instead a house-holder’s life believed 

in the non-reality of the world. 

3.9 The author has borrowed another assumption from Tawney, 

quoting him as follows: ‘ 

“The state is something more than an institution, created by material 

necessities or political convenience. It is the temporal expression of 

spiritual obligations. It is a link between individual souls and the 

supernatural society of which all are held to be members. It rests not 

merely on practical convenience, but on the will of God”. 

Obviously, the author assumes that the above view is universally 

accepted, and is shared by Guru Nanak. Both these assumptions are 

incorrect. Among the Western religions, in Judatsm even kings like David 

and Solomon wereseverly criticized by their prophets. Christianity, an 

offshoot of Judaism, also never 

83

accepted this view, and in fact their sufferings in the earlier centuries were 

due to this. The only notable exceptions were the ancient Egyptian and 

Roman cultures which accepted their emperors as representatives of God 

on earth. On the other hand, Guru Nanak has made it abundantly clear in 

his hymns that he conceded no such divine rights to kings or rulers. His 

criticism of the kings and the ruling class as well as the religious leaders 

who colluded with them in the exploitation of the poor subjects, is scathing 

in the extreme, and is unparallelled in its intensity. He describes the kings 

as (man-eating) tigers: officials as hounds’ or ‘eagles’ trained to bring their 

Own folks to gallows 47 , The author has himself presented a fairly 

representative selection of the Guru’s 

hymns attacking the rampant corruption in the political, administrative 

and religious spheres and the atrocities committed on the helpless people. 

The intensity of Guru’s feelings can be 

judged form the fact that he did not hesitate even to complain to God 

saying, ‘O Lord, did you not feel any pain, when such intense suffering 

was inflicted, and there was so’much wailing? 48 

In order to give practical shape to his idea of resistance against political 

oppression Guru Nanak took three tangible steps. He organised his society, 

removed the hurdle of ahimsa, and created the system of succession, to 

enable his Panth to undo the oppression. No other religious leader had 

done such a thing before in India. However, the author is in no mood to 

give any credit to Guru Nanak. He concludes with impunity: “Guru Nanak’s 

intense reaction to the politico-administrative set-up is more symbolic 

than realistic.” In the context explained above the author’s conclusion is 

clearly self contradictory, untenable and illogical. 

3.10 The author has mentioned Weber’s idea of ‘active asceticism’ only 

to create confusion in the interpretation of Guru Nanak’s bani. The idea 

itself is a contradiction in terms. When applied to the system of Guru 

Nanak, it is manifestly in appropriate. For, in India guru Nanak is the first 

spiritual leader who rejected asceticism, monasticism, celibacy, sanyas, 

etc., and instead, recommended a householder’s life. What is even more 

important, in dealing with political misrule and tyranny, he unhesitatingly 

rejected ahimsa, which, as also in pacificist Christianity, from where the 

author has borrowed the ill-assorted Weberian phrase, had been virtually a 

permanent bar against a religious man fighting against oppression of the weak. 

Guru Nanak never imposed any harsh and unnatural ascetic or monastic 

84

discipline. His message, as further explained by the Fifth Guru later, was 

“Liberation can be attained in a life of smiling playfulness, and enjoyment 

of wear and food, 49 . Guru Nanak has repeatedly referred to the futility of 

yogic practices and one point meditation. The so-called ‘interiority’ which 

Mcleod is so keen to thrust on Guru Nanak’s religious system, comes 

under the same 

category, and is of little value without carrying out the altruistic Will of 

God and service of mankind through noble deeds and a moral life. No 

religious leader has emphasized moral deeds, the sap that sustains social 

structure, more than Guru Nanak who says that man’s assessment is on 

the basis of his deeds, and that one is near or away from God by one’s 

deeds alone. 50 

3.11 Bellah has been quoted as follows”Four-class system appears 

to be the characteristic of all the great historic civilisations: a politicalmilitary 

elite, a cultural-religious elite, a rural lower-status group (peasantry), 

and an urban lower-status group (merchants and artisans)” Here again 

neither the generalisation of Bellah is correct, nor is its reference concerning 

Guru Nanak’s bani relevant. The Brahminical four-class system, as is well 

known, is singular in its fabrication and religio-spiritual sanction. Bellah 

seems to be unaware of the scriptural sanction of the Varanashram dharma, 

which governs the entire gamut of Hindu society. One cannot be a Hindu 

without belonging to a caste, for, in that case his spirituo-moral role and 

future will remain undetermined. While the four-class structure in other 

societies or cultures could be changed, such a caste reform is impossible 

internally in Hinduism. It is for this reason that Guru Nanak criticised the 

Vedas for giving sanction to it, and at the very start of his mission, gave a 

blow to it, by taking Mardana, a low-caste Muslim, as his life companion. 

For the same reasons the later Gurus created separate institutions and 

centres of the Sikh faith, besides a new Scripture, wholly governing the 

Sikh way of life. 

3.12 The author concedes that Guru Nanak succeeded in 

reconstructing the society. But while talking of symbols to express a new 

faith, he quotes Durkhem to suggest a virtual impossibility of the task, 

saying: “Whether those will resemble those of the past or not, and whether 

or not they will be more adequate to express the reality which they seek to 

translate, that is, something that Surpasses the faculty of human sight .” 

85

It has already been stated how emphatic was Guru Nanak on 

bringing religion into the empirical life of man, and making his religion 

wholly life-affirming and responsible in respect of every aspect of social 

life. His diagnosis is that without the cementing force of altruism it is 

impossible to maintain socio-political cohesion, and that the various 

institutions of life whether political or social structures would inevitably 

become corrupt and disintegrate. On Guru Nanak’s success in establishing 

a new society with new values, one may ask the learned author, whether 

it was due to the pacificism attributed by the author to the Guru’s system, 

or an active interest in the spirituo-social welfare of humanity. 

3.13 On page 13, the author writes: 

“An analysis of the theological imagery of Guru Nanak, indicates that he 

addressed himself largely to petty traders, artisans and to bond-servants 

of the moneyed magnates.” 

The inference is based on a very distorted spectrum, and is patently illogical. 

Guru Nanak was one of the greatest travellers in world history. During 

his sojourns his encounters with all sections of society in countless regions 

are recorded. He had occassions to meet all strata of people from the 

lowest to the highest, and in his bani there are plenty of references to all 

groups and professions. Tradition in India lists professions under four 

categories, viz farming, trading, service and begging. All find detailed 

coverage in the Guru’s hymns, besides the leaders and priest of different 

religious faiths and the administrative or ruling hierarchy. 

3.14 on page 19 it is stated: 

“Almost a complete transvaluation of values is achieved. ‘The 

blind man is called a leader, the sleeper, awake: the awakened, a 

sleeper; the quick, the dead; the dead, the quick; the newly arrived, 

the goner; the goner, newly arrived; stranger’s property, their 

own;their own, not likeable; the sweet, bitter; the bitter, sweet.They 

worship the maid maya, not the master God.Thus they speak ill of 

God intoxicated men.” 

There is no clear indication in the above by the author as to who 

is being quoted,and what message is intended to be conveyed. 

3.15 The author concludes his chapter by quoting Bellah 

thus: 

“Religion provided the ideology and social cohesion for rebellions and 

reforms. on the other hand, religion performed the functions of legitimation 

and reinforcement of the 

86

existing social order, specially under the Sikh rule.’The conclusion is rather 

extraordinary, since it suggests that, on the one hand, the Guru’s bani led 

to revolution and reform, and on the other, it served to legitimize the Sikh 

rule. The self-cotradictory nature of this conclusion is matched only by 

the arbitrariness of the initial assumption of the unreality of the world 

attributed to Guru Nanak with which misconception or prejudice the 

author starts the first chapter of his book. We have already stated the 

three major steps the Guru took to organise the society, that ultimately 

not only demolished the three-thousand year old caste differences, but 

also overthrew the oppressive political system. To call Guru Nanak a 

status-quoist giving sanction to an unjust existing social or political order, 

appears to be a sheer exhibition of bias or perversion. 

3.16 The author has quoted selectively from the bani of Guru 

Nanak. In a number of cases, however, the translaltion has not been very 

accurate. A few examples are given to illustrate how his in accuracies 

whether deliberate or negligent have been used to make major 

misinterpretations. 

Verse 

tis seon nehon na kijaee 

jo disai chalanhar 

(page 2) 

sagal jot rup tern 

dekhiya sagal bhavan 

teri maya (page 3) 

Jat aja t ajoni Sambhao 

na tis bhao na bharma 

(page 4) 

app sujan no bhulai 

sacha vad kirsan 

(Page 17) 

Author’s translation 

The world is unreal and 

unworthy of human 

attachment. 

Social distinction are 

metaphysically invalid, 

because of two principles. 

They are distinctions in the 

realm of unreality or Maya, 

and they are false, because 

the light of God shines in 

everybody everywhere. 

Without any caste, love or 

illusion. 

God never forgets that 

‘Truth is a peasant.’ 

87 

Translation by Talib 51 

Attach not yourself to 

what is evanescent. 

In all universe is manifest 

thy might. In all 

manifestation is seen thy 

form. 

Not characterised by high or 

low caste - Unincarnated, 

self-existent; from fear and 

doubt free. 

The Lord, holy Master- 

Cultivator is not neglectful.

gori seti tute bhatar 

putingandh pave sansar 

3.17. We have shown how in every aspect Guru Nanak’s system 

and his activities are life-affirming, aiming clearly at revolutionary changes 

in religious ideology, social structure and political approach and objectives. 

The author’s observations regarding his bani and activities are exactly 

contrary to what Guru Nanak stated, preached, practised and aimed at. In 

the Guru’s model, the centre of religious practice is the householder who 

lives in a becoming world, as real as the Lord who created it, and who is 

immanent in it; who earns his living through honest means and shares it 

with others in need; who is ever engaged in carrying out the Will of God 

through altruistic deeds; and who accepts social responsibility as an active 

member of a society committed to a just political order or Kingdom of 

God on earth. The author wants us to believe on the authority of Guru 

Nanak, that the world is unreal and unworthy of attachment, interest or 

activities, social or political. To support his indefensible thesis the author 

has made ample use of the art of suppression, misinterpretation and even 

mistranslation. And yet he could not avoid glaring contradictions between 

the verses quoted and the conclusions drawn. Some times Marxist writers 

are able partly to hide their bias under verbose jargon but the author’s 

obsession with his faith is so nauseating that he has not stopped short of 

violating norms of academic expression. 

REFERENCES 

1. Adi Granth, page 7, Japu. 

2. Ibid, P 955, Var Ramkali mahala 3. 

3. Ibid, P 2, Japu. . 

4. Ibid, P 9, Rahras, Asa M.1. 

5. Ibid, P 459, Asa M. 5. 

6. Ibid, P 2, Japu. 


8. Ibid, P 1, Japu 

9. Ibid, P 463, Var Asa M. 1. 

Woman is satisfied with 

her husband, sons 

continue their family 

succession 

88 

Should the husband 

with the wife have 

break of relations, 

through progeny are 

their bonds forged 

again.

10. Ibid, P 1012, Maru,M.1. 


12. Ibid, P 463 Farid.Var Asa M.I. 

13. Ibid, P 66, Farid. 


15. Ibid, P 273, Sukhmani, M.5. 

16. Ibid, P 853, Var Bilawal, M.4. 

17. Ibid, p295 Gauri M.5. 

18. Ibid, P 1012, Maru Ashtpadi 7, M.l 

19. Ibid, P 903, Ramkali, M.l. 

20. Ibid, P 1089, Var Maru,M.3. 

21. Ibid, P 2245, Sarang. 

22. Bhai Gurdas, Var 1.40. 

23. Adi Granth, p 952, Var Ramkali, M.3 

24. Ibid, P 62,Sri Rag M.1. 


26. Ibid, P 26. Sri Rag. M.l. 

27.lbid, P 62, Sri Rag,Asa 6.14 

28. Ibid, P 83, Var Sri Rag. Sloka 1, Pauri 3. 

29. Ibid, P 142, Var Maj, P. 10. 

30. Ibid, Asa 1.3; p-349 

31. Ibid, P 469,Var Asa, S.3, P. 11. 

32. Ibid, P 15, Sri Rag. 

33. Ibid, P 473, Var Asa. 

34. lbid, p418, Rag Asa. 

35. Ibid, P 360, Rag Asa. 

36. Macau1iffe, MA: ‘The Sikh Religion”, Vol. I. Preface page xxiii,1910, S.Chand 

& Co., New Delhi. 

37. Ibid, chapter ii, Page 1 iv. 

38. Trurnpp, E.: “The Adi Granth”, Preface page vii,Second Edition, 1970, Munshi 

Ram Manohar Lal New Delhi. 

39. Hans, S.:”A Reconstruction of Sikh History from Sikh Literature”, Chapter 1, 

The Bani of Guru nanak. pp 1-41. ABS Publications, Jalandhar, 1988. 

40. Ibid, Page 1. 

41. Adi Granth,page 145,Var Majh, Slokas 1,2 Pauri 1. 

42. Ibid, Page 7, Japu. 

43. Ibid, page 463, Var Asa, M.l. 

44. Ibid, Page 294, Gauri M.5. 

45. Ibid, page 12, Rahras, Asa M.l. 

89

46. Juergensmeyer, M.:JourSikh Studies, GND Univ.Amritsar, 1980-81. 

47. Adi Granth, page 1288, Var MaIhar 1. 

48. Ibid, page 360, Asa 1. 

49. Ibid, page 522, Var Gujri, M.5. 

50. Ibid, page 8, Japu. 

51 Talib, G.S. : “Shri Curu Cranth Sahib in English Translation”; Punjabi Univ. 

Patiala, 1988. 

90

8 

KINDS OF KNOWLEDGE AND PLACE OF REASON IN SRI 

GURU GRANTH SAHIB 

GURNAM KAUR 

In this paper, “Kinds of Knowledge and Place of Reason in 

Sri Guru Granth Sahib”, we shall see what is the view of knowledge 

and its kinds according to Sri Guru Granth Sahib. We shall also refer to 

the place of reason in this context. First of all the general notion of 

knowledge will be analysed. It appears that the Sikh Gurus have 

outlined a triadic concept of hearing (suniai), reflection (marme), and 

contemplation (ek dhyan) to represent the various kinds of knowledge. 

These concepts are comparable to somewhat similar view in the 

upanishads. 

In their general discourse about the kinds of knowledge, the 

Sikh Gurus have made an interesting use of the idea of divine reason 

(hukam). Often it is used in a sense in which the notion of the uniformity 

of Nature is cited as formal ground of induction. Along with the idea 

of the Word (shabad) as testimony, the concept of truth (sach) has also 

been discussed. So the paper has been divided into two parts. In the 

first part the general notion of knowledge and the concepts of hearing, 

reflection and contemplation will be analysed and in the second part 

we shall discuss the idea of divine reason (hukam), the Word (shabad) 

as testimony, and the concept of truth (sach). 

Knowledge (gian) : In Sri Guru Granth Sahib, the word gian has 

been used for the word knowledge in English language. It is the Punjabi 

version of the Sanskrit word Jnana which is a noun. The root of the 

word Jnana is vid originally identical with vidanta. The meaning of the 

word vid is to find, discover, obtain, acquire. The word Jnana means 

knowing, becoming acquainted with, knowledge, especially the higher 

knowledge derived from meditation on the universal spirit. 1 It is the 

level of consciousness, a state of knowing. According to a dictionary 

of philosophy, 

91

knowledge means “relations known and apprehended truth” 2 To 

know means to be conscious of something. Knowledge means 

consciousness. 

According to Advaita Vedanta, “Knowledge is manifest (svatah 

prakasa). It requires no other knowledge to know it. Knowledge neither 

apprehends itself, nor is apprehended by another knowledge. Like sunlight 

it shines of itself and does not require any other light for its manifestation 

while it makes known other things”. 3 

The very first reference made to knowledge is in Japuji where it 

has been used in the sense of perceptual as well as rational knowledge. It 

is held that the number of devotees is countless. It is perceptual knowledge. 

It is further held that the reflection on the qualities of the higher Reality 

leads to knowledge. It is rational knowledge. This rational knowledge. 

leads man on the path of devotion to the higher Reality. 4 It is further 

mentioned in Japuji that to apprehend the higher Truth, perceptual 

knowledge is most important, being the first step towards knowing. It has 

been termed as the region of knowledge (gian khand). 5 In this region knowing 

is concerned with the three aspects of perceptual knowledge. The first 

aspect is related with the perceptual and empirical knowledge of the 

physical world i.e. the seeker acquires the knowledge of many kinds of 

winds, waters, fires and heat. The second aspect of perceptual knowledge 

described in this stanza is the knowledge of society and the principles of 

social relations, of the many religious practices of the people, of their 

myths and symbols. The third aspect is concerned with the cultural traditions 

of the people, the literary and historical aspect of man, and their efforts 

and achievements in the field of learning and wisdom. Thus, the field of 

perceptual knowledge is very wide. It expands the consciousness of the 

seeker in vast directions. it is the first and necessary step for a seeker to 

cover all the fields of knowledge. 

Sri Guru Nanak Dev does not reject the empirical knowlege totally 

as some rationalists might have done, nor does he consider the empirical 

knowledge as the only valid knowledge as some empiricists have stressed. 

He considers perceptual knowledge as the first, and often complementary 

step towards rational knowledge. Every kind of knowlege has got its own 

area of performance. 

Both should be combined in such a way that they supplement 

each other to achieve the still higher knowledge which is called 

92

intuitive. The data whicl1 we get through sense-perception would be 

irrelevant and disjointed unless it is unified and integrated by the relations 

known through reflection and reason. 

The third kind of knowledge which the Guru has stressed along 

with perceptual and rational knowledge is intuitive knowledge. The 

knowledge which)s attained by a super-rational and super-sensuous faculty 

is called intuitive knowledge. It is mostly related with mysticism. The 

knowledge attained through such a faculty is considered related with higher 

truths of Reality which are above relations, while rational knowledge is 

knowledge about relations. Intuition has been understood very differently 

by many epistemologists. At one place, intuition has been defined as, “the 

direct and immediate apprehension by a knowing subject of itself, of its 

conscious states, of other minds, of an external world, of universals, of 

values, or of rational truths”. 6 

According to Guru Nanak Dev Ji, God has created man with his 

five sense-organs and subtle organs. Man has the faculty to know. When 

man reflects, and through reflection attains the rational knowledge, he 

becomes fearless, because knowledge destroys fear. For the knowledge 

gained through reflection and contemplation, the word’ gian-anjan’ has 

been used by the Gurus, which refers to a process of knowledge. 7 And 

this process is related to reason. The seeker can have the knowledge of 

the secrets of Reality, if he keeps his mind open and receptive. His mental 

awareness is related to the higher Reality. According to Sri Guru Nanak 

Dev, knowledge 8 (gian) is something which is gained and the gaining or 

achieving of knowledge is related with perceptual and rational knowledge. 

Guru Nanak Dev has also used the word “gian dhian’ or’ gian vichar’ for 

rational knowledge. Then knowledge (gian) is seen as sojhi hoe, which refers 

to intuition. Intuitive knowledge is the highest knowledge through which 

man is united with the higher truth. When man attains all the three kinds 

of knowledge, his consciousness expands and he knows the whole cosmos. 

According to Guru Nanak Dev, intuitive knowledge is the highest 

knowledge which he calls a jewel (‘ gian ratan,). 9 It comes to the mind with 

the Grace of God. Through intuitive knowledge man attains the highest 

truth of life and the evil nature of man is destroyed. He becomes truthful. 

According to the Guru 10 knowledge is the emancipator of man. It leads to liberation, 

while Ignorance becomes the cause of man’s bondage. Without intuitive 

93

knowledge, whatever man says or discusses is all vain and foolish, for it 

creates confusion. 

The Guru has expressed the relation and interdependence of each 

kind of knowledge. 11 These do not oppose each other, but having their 

own areas of operation, they supplement each other. Without the help of 

reason, perception is not of much use, and reason does not become fruitful 

unless man intuites the essence of truth. When a mind is illumined by 

knowledge, it dispels the darkness of ignorance, as when a lamp is lit, its 

light dispels the darkness. So when man gains scriptural knowledge through 

reading and listening, his mind is rid of evil tendeny, because ignorance 

gives rise to all wrongs and through scriptural knowledge ignorance 

vanishes. But, mere reading or listening of scriptures is just a routine matter, 

if it is without reflection. At the same time, mere reasoning or discoursing 

does not lead anywhere, if one does not intuite the essence of that 

knowledge. So perceptual knowledge, rational knowledge and intuitive 

knowledge supplement each other. Sri Guru Amardas 12 has referred to 

rational knowledge as the awakening of mind and ignorance as slumber. 

According to the Guru, rational knowledge is attained through reflection 

on virtues (gun-vichar). Through this, man’s consciousness expands, and 

once this is achieved, he never loses the received knowledge. Then he has 

rational knowledge related with intuition which is called comprehension 

(bujhna). The intuitive knowledge is known through the Guru. This intuitive 

truth is known only to saints. Sri Guru Amardas has also used the word’ 

div drishti’ (celestial power) 13 for intuitive knowledge which dispels illusion. 

From the above discussion it follows that the three kinds of 

knowledge are accepted and considered valid in Sri Guru Granth Sahib. 

They are: perceptual knowledge which is expressed through the words 

such as, “dekhia or vekhia, sunia, jania”, etc. The perceptual knowledge is 

related with the universe, man, or the whole creation. Sensory knowledge 

is the first step towards the knowing of Truth. But sensory knowledge is 

not the only knowledge. There are truths which are above or beyond 

perceptual knowledge. These truths are known through rational 

knowledge. These truths are related with man’s culture, religion, and man’s 

relation with man, society, etc. Reason provides us with relational 

knowledge. But still there is a Reality which is above relations, the 

realisation of which is the ultimate goal of man’s existence. Rational 

knowledge provides the 

94

door to that knowledge but it cannot be apprehended through reason. 

That knowledge which is related with man’s spiritual craving is intuitive 

knowledge. It is realized knowledge. Every kind of knowledge has its 

own sphere. One kind of knowledge does not interfere with the sphere of 

another. Rather they supplement one another. 

The three aspects of knowledge mentioned above have been 

elaborated by Guru Nanak in the Japuji as hearing (Suniai), reflection (manne) 

and contemplation (ek dhyan). Hearing (suniai) is related to perceptual 

knowledge, reflection (manne) is concerned with rational knowledge, and 

contemplation (dhyan) is related to intuitive knowledge. 

Hearing (Suniai) : Sri Guru Nanak Dev dealt in detail with the 

concept of hearing (sunial). In the Japuji four stanzas have been devoted 

to this concept. In Sri Guru Granth Sahib, hearing (suniai) is related with the 

knowledge acquired through sensory organs, ears as well as the hearing of 

the Word(shabad). Though the hearing of the Word (shabad) involves the 

sansory organ, ear, but it is concerned with the spiritual perspective. It 

does not end’ with physical hearing, but this should continue till the spiritual 

transformation of the human personality takes place. In this context, the 

word (shabad) is to be sung along with hearing. 14 It is not mere drumming 

into the ear of a sound which does not reach ,the heart. It creates an inner 

atmosphere which is termed as “man rakhiai bhao” i.e. to keep the fear of 

God in mind. Here pain vanishes automatically, and happiness makes the 

heart its permanent abode. This leads to awakening of the mind. 

Sri Guru Nanak Dev introduces the world of knowledge step by, 

step. To know God the first step is to know His creation and this is made 

possible through hearing which is the first stage of knowledge. When we 

analyse relevant stanza of the ]apuji, we come to know that by hearing we 

acquire the knowledge about: “(i) the lives of the realized persons and (ii) 

the various aspects of the world,” as observed by a scholar. 15 The second 

stanza provides 16 to the seeker knowledge about beings of higher 

consciousness and the secrets of higher consciousness. In the third 

stanza, 17 the seeker acquires knowledge about the higher ethical principles 

such as truthfulness, moral qualities, contentment, punfication and the 

virtues. It finally leads to the Source of All. In the fourth stanza 18 the 

seeker acquires knowledge of the application of wisdom by those who 

after acquiring knowledge 

95

guide others on the right path. 

Reflection (Manne) : After the first stage of knowledge, hearing 

follows the second stage of knowledge, namely, reflection (manne). As 

discussed by a learned scholar, Sri Guru Nanak Dev considers it necessary 

that the seeker should not only acquire knowledge by hearing (suniai) from 

the testimony of others, but he must reflect on what he ‘hears,. 19 

In the first stanza about reflection 20 (manne) the Guru warns the 

seeker that the process of reflection cannot be fully described, and 

whosoever makes such a claim would at the end realize its futility. This 

failure to describe the process of reflection (manne), arises from the fact 

that the possibilities involved in reflection are so vast and infinite. In the 

second stanza it is stated that through reflection the consciousness of the 

mind and the intellect are fashioned and sharpened. 21 

In the third stanza 22 Sri Guru Nanak Dev holds that reflection 

(manne) removes all the hindrances from the path of the seeker. 23 A man of 

reason or reflection receives great honour and distinction. Reason clears 

his mind of waywardness and hesitation. He now walks on a straight, 

broad and clear path. 

In the fourth and the last stanza 24 devoted to reflection, it is stated 

that the man of reflection realizes the ultimate aim of human life. 

According to the Guru, such a seeker of truth gets transformed and 

commits himself to the spiritual transformation of the people. 

Contemplation (Dhyan) : The third stage of knowledge described by 

the Guru is called contemplation (dhyan). This has been referred by a scholar 

as single-minded contemplation. 25 As mentioned above, contemplation 

(dhyan) is the highest stage in the process of knowledge and results in 

gaining the purest knowledge. Contemplation, in the mystical sense, is 

knowledge consisting in the partial or complete link of the knower with 

the object of knowledge, with the consequent loss of one’s individuality. 

In Japuji, when the seeker achieves the third stage of knowledege 

i.e. contemplation (dhyan), he is known as the elect (panch). 26 This stage 

of knowledge, “indicates both hearing and reflection. We find that the 

term contemplation (dhyan) occurs even while the Guru discusses the 

various aspects of knowledge by hearing. The need to synthesize knowledge 

is, thus,stressed by Sri Guru Nanak Dev through this third aspect of 

knowledge. The synthesis, thus, is a constituent of the knowledge 

itself.” 27 

The Guru 28 has given a beautiful simile to make it clear that 

96

knowledge ripens through contemplation. One gets to the purest form of 

Truth in contemplation. This comes through His grace. Here, the Dharma has 

been compared to a flower and knowledge is its fruit which ripens with 

contemplation. 

We shall now proceed to the second part of this paper where we shall 

analyse the concept of divine Reason (hukam) as the rational substratum of the 

universe. The uniformity of nature and the causal law may be seen as an important 

aspect of Reality. We shall discuss the concepts of the word (shabad), and the 

Truth (sach). 

Divine Reason (Hukam): Hukam is an Arabic word, and, as a noun, is 

used for ‘order’. According to F. Staingrass its meaning is “exercising authority, 

commanding, command, dominion, control, direction, influence, efficiency; and 

article of faith; proposition, relation, wisdom and knowledge”. 29 

It has been used in different grammatical forms in the Sri Guru Granth 

Sahib as ‘hukamao, hukmavai, hukmi, hukmu, hukme.. hukmai and hukmao. But the 

concept remains the same in all these usages. The hukam seems to be used for 

the natural system or the coherent whole, which is perceived as an orderly 

cosmos. It has been used in the Qu’ran, but the sense in which it has been used as 

a concept in Sikhism, is not taken as such from Islam. 

According to Sri Guru Granth Sahib, Hukam appears to be used for the 

divine, or the higher order, reason. It leads us to the knowledge of causal 

relationship in nature. There is orderliness in nature. Things are very cordially 

related. To understand this relatedness and coherence is to understand divine 

reason (hukam). 

According to Avtar Singh, “hukam as universal will (or divine will) can 

be understood to operate in two ways. It may be taken to operate as external to 

self as “Thou shalt do this. . .” as laid down in a series of commandments in 

scriptures. But in another and proper sense, in Sikhism, this Hukam or will may 

be understood to operate as internal to self”. 30 

The word divine reason seems the most proper word for Hukam because 

it is not like authoritarian external order. It is within man. It is Divine Will which 

includes knowledge and that knowledge is reached through intiution. So it may 

be called Divine Reason. 

Sri Guru Nanak Dev has referred to divine reason (hukam) as the potent 

factor for the removal of ignorance and falsehood. 31 Ignorance, here, is described 

as ‘the wall of falsehood’ (kurai pali). In answer to a question posed by Sn 

Guru Nanak Dev as to how 

97

this wall of falsehood can be demolished, he himself later replies that it 

can be done, the falsehood and ignorance can be removed through divine 

reason (hukam). Sri Guru Nanak Dev, has, in the above hymn, established 

a polarity of divine reason (hukam) with ignorance. The divine reason 

(hukam) has, thus, clearly a cognitive element. Divine reason, Hukam, is 

neither blind nor devoid of cosmic cognitive element. It explains the precise 

and accurate nature of it (hukam). It also hints at its rational nature. When 

this divine reason (hukam) is said to be written ‘within’ (likhia nali) the self, 

it is also seen as the principle of illumination and knowledge. 

It has been emphasized by the Gurus that knowledpe is realized 

by knowing the rational nature of the universe. 32 The seeker is, time and 

again, reminded that the universe operates according to certain laws. The 

mathematical accuracy with which the events take place in nature display 

a rational character. Here reason and the causal accuracy appear to suggest 

that mathematics is the grammer of nature. The knowledge, or the 

empirical version of it in sciences, discover the ever on-going causal relation 

in various elements in the cosmos. The realization of knowledge beginning 

with awareness of the divine reason (hukam), 33 thus, appears to be the first 

step of wonder necessary for any sustained journey to the deeper and 

meaningful knowledge. It beacons the self to perceive the orderliness and 

rational nature of the cosmos, and it also sustains it through the levels of 

higher knowledge. It, thus, perceives of ‘what is’ to ‘why is’. The concept 

of hukam is, therefore, intimately connected with the idea of reason. 

The functioning of this divine reason is not limited to the physical 

sphere only. It also extends to the moral aspect of this universe in the 

form of the law of karma. Nothing is happening outside the divine reason 

(hukam). The relatedness of divine reason (hukam) and law of karma is 

called in Sri Guru Granth Sahib ‘hukam sanjogi’. Divine reason (Hukam) is 

harmony and coherence; and to live in hukam is to live in harmony which 

leads to the perception of highest truth. Disharmony leads to animal 

living in the cycle of birth and death. The first Guru holds 34 that the true 

service to God is to be content in His Name and this is to realize divine 

reason (hukam). Such a person who realizes divine reason (hukam) within 

his self also realizes the Supreme self. Such persons are relieved of doubt 

and separation. Man comes into this world in accordance with his deeds 

under the system of divine reason, (hukam), so he should live in divine 

reason (hukam). In Sikhism, it is held that to 

98

99 

know God, to apprehend the Truth, man should have an insight into this 

divine reason (hukam). To know divine reason (hukam) and to follow divine 

reason (hukam), is the pre-condition to the vision of God (the Hukami). 

The conception of divine reason (hukam) does not shift from the physical 

to the moral sphere. The physical universe as well as the moral order are 

working together under divine reason (hukam). Nothing is out of it. Owing 

to this, the world is not a chaos, nor the blind fury of chance and elements. 

It is an ordered whole, working for a harmonious purpose. 

Uniformity of Nature: As mentioned earlier, Sri Guru Nanak Dev 

has interpreted the principle of the uniformity of nature through the 

concept of divine reason (hukam). The right understanding of divine reason 

(hukam) 35 reveals an orderliness in nature which is knowable. If one 

penetrates deep into it, one can apprehend that the universe, its living 

beings, their excellences, miseries, and happinesses all come into existence 

according to the uniform law of nature which is based on divine reason 

(hukam). This has been further explained by the concept of nature (qudrat), 

according to which all seemingly different appearances are produced by 

the same cause which has been explained as ‘teri qudrat’. It has been 

interpreted by some scholars as ‘His Power’ . 36 Through this divine reason 

(hukam) everything in nature is working in a rational pattern. The laws of 

nature are rational. They are not fortuitous. Nothing is accidental or by 

chance. 37 Chance represents our lack of understanding the order. There is 

causal uniformity which has been expressed through the concepts of divine 

reason (hukam) and nature (qudrat). 

The Word (Shabad): The concept of hearing (suniai), reflection manne) 

and contemplation (dhyan) has two aspects. In one aspect It is related with 

the hearing. reflection and contemplation of perceptual knowledge. The 

second aspect of it is related with the hearing, reflection and contemplation 

of the Word (shabad). Now, we shall discuss the meaning of the Word 

(shabad} in Sikhism. 

The Guru have used the Word (shabad) in many different meanings 

in different contexts. One meaning among them can be said to be ‘logos’, 

or Scripture, and in the sense of testimony (pramana), a source of 

knowledge. The Word (shabad) has been used in Sri Guru Granth Sahib in 

different grammatical forms as shabad, shabadah, shabadi, shabadu, shabada, 

shabadai and shabado. But these different forms do not make any conceptual 

difference. 

The Word (Shabad) is the knowledge which instructs man for

100 

truthful living. Through the Word (shabad) man gets rid of all types of 

ignorance which are the cause of his separation from ultimate Truth. 

Through the Word (shabad) his mind and body both are brightened. 

According to the Gurus, the Word (shabad) helps the seeker in gaining 

knowledge in contemplation and in following the way of religion. 38 The 

Word (shabad) has also been viewed as the guiding force. When the Word 

(shabad) becomes the guiding force for man it becomes Guru. 39 Through 

shabad man’s action and will are refined. They become as action and will 

of Guru, they become connated with Guru’s will. The Word (shabad) is 

the medium to understand the higher truths as divine reason (hukam). 40 

The Word (shabad) 41 as the expression of Reality is operative in 

every body. Reality is the true Word. This truth is realized through God’s 

Grace, when He bestows Grace, man is attuned to truth which is the 

Word (shabad). In Sikhism, the Word (shabad) is the Guru and the Guru is 

the Word (shabad). Man is to learn the spiritual path from the Guru, who 

reveals Word (shabad) in the form of Gurbani which eventually became 

the Guru. 

So in Sikhism, the Word (shabad) has been used in more than one 

sense. The Word (shabad) is the expression of the Reality. It is within man 

as immanent Reality. The Word (shabad) is the means of knowledge of the 

highest Truth, the Truth is attained through reflection and contemplation 

on the Word (shabad). The intuitive experience of Reality is expressed in 

the Word (shabad). So the Word (shabad) is the testimony. Again, ignorance 

and falsehood are removed through reflection and contemplation on the 

Word (shabad), which is to be received from the Guru. In Sikhism, the 

Word (shabad) is Guru. 

Truth (Sach) : As discussed above the Word (shabad) is the only 

means of the knowledge of the highest Reality, the Truth. Now, we shall 

discuss the concept of Truth (sach). Sach is the Punjabi form of the Sanskrit 

word sat, which is a noun and its root in the Sanskrit language is asi. The 

meanings which the word imflies are: being, existing, occurring, happening, 

being present, etc. 42 Its adjective is satya. 43 In Hindu Dharam Kosh, satya has 

been held as that which remains the same in the three divisions of time 

that is past, present and future. 44 In Sri Guru Granth Sahib both the forms 

i.e. sach as well as sat have been used. 

In Sri Guru Granth Sahib truth (sach) has been used with three 

different meanings. Firstly, it is an attribute of Reality. Secondly, it is a 

quality of a proposition which has got the capacity for guiding

101 

the conduct. Thirdly, truth (sach) has been referred to as a moral virtue. So 

it is concerned with the three areas: ontological - with the nature of Reality, 

epistemological - as a theory of truth or knowledge, and ethical - as a 

moral virtue. Here we are mainly concerned with the ‘Truth’, in the meaning 

of Being, the Reality, though we shall also refer to the other two aspects 

of truth (sach). 

Interpreting sati nam in Mulmantra, it is held that the word (sati) 

here implies the non-dualsati. It is above sat-asat or sach-jhuth dualism,and 

implies the meaning of “a conscious being whose form is truth.” 45 

Truth (sach) has also been described as having a capacity to guide 

the conduct of the seeker, According to Sri Guru Nanak Dev, truth (sach) is 

the panacea for the ills which afflict man. It washes the mind clean of all 

sins. 46 Truth (sach) as a moral virtue is realized when the seeker disciplines 

the baser interests and cultivates the angelic aspect of his personality. 47 

The word of the Guru (Gurvak) helps in realizing the Truth. It is a 

guide, the Pure, which illumines the heart and mind with its Light. Through 

its light the Reality is shown to man.4 48 Such a man is termed as sacha, or 

sachiara, the True One, who is imbued with the highest Truth, the Ultimate 

Reality. In him,God’s light becomes manifest which leads to the above 

mentioned results. 49 

From our discussion about truth (sach) and its attainment, we can 

say that to be a true one (sachiar) means to realize the unity of the self 

with the Truth (sach) or the Absolute. The seeker is to attain this unity not 

only through reflection, contemplation and intuition alone, but through 

his actions also. This combination is essential.He has to discipline his life 

in the way of the Gurus. This realisation or knowledge is not static, it is 

dynamic. The ideal of Truth, according to Sikhism, cannot be attained in 

seclusion. It is to be attained through participation in social life. Seclusion 

leads to escapism from the social responsibililties. But in Sikhism, the 

true one (sachiara) becomes dynamic and more conscious of his social 

responsibilities. He utilizes his knowledge for the improvement of the 

human society. 50 

According to Sri Guru Granth Sahib all creation and its expansion 

done by the Reality is true. The Creator and the creation both are True. 51 

It Implies that all is real. There is no possibility of wrong and falsehood or 

evil in the Divine plan. Falsehood or evil exists only from the 

point of view of finite creatures. But they also have 

the potentialities of transcending these weaknesses and attain

102 

Truth. 

The Gurus consider ego (haumai) and egoistic vision (maya) to be the wall 

of falsehood that obstructs man from understanding the Truth. They give 

rise to many passions, like greed (lobh), infatuation (moh), enmity (vair) and 

discrepancy (virodh),etc. which separate man from the Reality. Ego (haumai) 

has been considered a basic malady, but the remedy is also there. when 

man recognises the negative role of the ego (haumai) within him, he can 

remove it, with the Grace of God. 52 When it is removed, man has the 

knowledge of Reality and the person becomes the conscious instrument 

of Reality. 

To conclude our discussion, we can say that the Sikh Gurus have 

used deductive reasoning to demonstrate the theoretical as well as the 

practical aspects of reason. Our study of the material and the formal 

grounds of induction, has shown that the Gurus have explained the 

enduring foundations of human knowledge. The divine is not a postulate 

for denying the rational knowledge. On the contrary, it is the assurance of 

a higher order of coherence as the ground of our knowledge. It reinforces 

and sustains our effort for greater and greater, as well as deeper and deeper, 

knowledge and truer understanding and activity. 

REFERENCES 

1. Monier Monicr Williams,A Sanskrit English Dictionary, (Delhi, Moti Lal Banarsi 

Das, reprinted 1981) 

‘Jnana’, p. 426. 

2. Dagobert, D. Runes, Dictionary of Philosophy, (Bombay: Jaico-Publishing House, 1957) 

‘knowledge’ . 

3. Swami Satprakashananda, Methods of Knowledge (London: George Alien an 

Unwin Ltd. 1965), p.110 

4. Srii Guru Granth Sahib, M.1, pA. 

asankh jap asankh bhau 

asankh puja asankh tap tau 

5. Ibid., M.1, p.7. 

dharam khand ka eho dharam 

gian khand ka akhahu karam 

6. Dagobert, D. Runes, op.cit., ‘Intuition’. 

7. Sri Guru Granth Sahib, M.1, p. 57. 

gian anjanu bhaibhanjna dekhu niranjan bhae 

guptu pargat sabh janiai je manu rakhai thae

8. Sri Guru Granth Sahib, M.1, p.60. 

sacha nehu na tutai je satguru bhetai soi 

gian padarathu paiai tribhavan sojhi hoi 

9. Ibid., M.1, p.354. 

jan tudhu bhavai ta durmati jae 

gian ratanu mani vasai ae 

10. Ibid., M.1, p.466. 

haumai bujhai ta daru sujhai 

gian vihuna kathi kathi lujhai 

11. Ibid., M.1, p.791. 

Ugavai suru na japai chandu 

jah gian pargasu agianu mitantu 

beid pathu sansar ki kar 

parhi parhi pandit karahi bichar 

binu bujhe sabh hoe khuar 

12. Ibid., M.3, p.160. 

manmukh suta maya mohi piari 

gurmukhi jage gun gian bichari 

se jan jage jin nam piari, sahaje jagai savai na koi 

pure gur te bujhai janu koi 

13. Ibid., M.3' p.1016. 

Dib drisati jagai bharamu chukae gurparasadi param padu pae 

so jogi ihu jugati pachhanai gur kai sabadi bichari jio 

14. Ibid., M.1, p.2. 

gaviai suniai mani rakhiai bhau 

dukhu parhari sukhu ghari lai jae 

15. Avtar Singh, Ethics of the Sikhs, (Patiala, Punjabi University, 1970) 

16. Sri Guru Granth Sahib, M.1, p.2. 

suniai isaru brahma indu 

suniai mukhi salahanu mundu. 

17. Ibid., M.1, p.3. 

suniai satu santokhu gianu 

18. Ibid., M.1, p.8. 

suniai sara guna ke gah 

suniai sekh pir patisah 

19. Avtar Singh, op.cit., p:88. 

20. Sri Guru Granth Sahib, p.3. 

manne ki gati kahi na jae 

Je ko kahai pichhai pachhutae 

21. Ibid., p.3. 

mannai surati hovai mani budhi 

mannai sagal bhavan ki sudhi 

22. Ibid., p.3. 

mannai maragi thak na pae 

mannai pati siu pargatu jae 

23. Avtar Singh, op.cit., p.90 

103


mannai pavahi mokhu duara 

mannai parvarai sadharu 

25. Avtar Singh, op.cil., p.91. 


panch parvan panch pardhanu, panchanka gur eku dhian. 

27. Avtar Singh, op.cit., p.91. 


nanak guru santokhu rukhu dharamu phulu phalu gian 

ras rasia haria sada pakai karami dhian 

29. Staingrass, F., A Comprehensive Persian English Dictionary (New Delhi: Oriental 

Books reprint corporation, 54 Rani Jhansi Road, first edition, 1973), p.426. 

30. Avtar Singh, op.cit., pp.30-31. 

31. Sri Guru Granth Sahib, M.l, p.1. 

Kiv sachiara hoviai kiv kurhai tutai pali 

hukami rajai chalna nanak likhia nali 

32. Ibid., p.l, p.7. 

33. Ibid., M.l, p.1. 

hukami hovani akar hukamu na kahia jai 

hukami hovani jia hukami milai vadiai 

34. Sri Guru Granth Sahib, p.421 

hukami rajai jo chalai so pavai khajanai 

hukami snjogi aia chalu sada rajai 

35. Sri Guru Granth Sahib, M.I, p.1. 

hukami hovani akar hukami na kahya jae 

36. Gopal Singh Dardi, translator, Sri Guru Granth Sahib 

(Chandigarh: World University Press, 1978), p.457. 


qudrati disai qudrati suniai qudrati bhau sukh saru 

nanak hukamai andari vekhai vartai tako taku 

38. Ibid., p.223. 

eku sabad ik bhikhia mangai 

gianu dhianu jugati sachu jagai 

39. Ibid., p.225. 

durmat agani jagat parjarai 

so ubrai gur sabadu bicharai 

40. Ibid., M.1, p.940. 

hukame avai hukame javai hukame rahai samaei 

pure gur te sachu kmavai gati miti sabade paei 

41. Ibid., M.l, p.1275. 

chahudisi hukamu varatai prabhu tera chahudisi name pataln 

sab mahi sabadu varatai parabhu sacha karami milai baialn 

42. M.M. Williams, op.cit., ‘asi’,p.1134. 

43. Shiv Ram Apte, ‘satya’, p.1063. 

44. Rajbali Pandey, op.cit., p.650. 

104

45. Bhai Vir Singh, Santhya Sri Guru Granth Sahib, 

Vol. 1 (Amritsar: Khalsa Samachar, Hall Bazar, Nov.,1961), p.12. 


sachu ta paru janiai ja ridai sacha hoe 

sachu sabhna hoe daru papu kadhai dhoe 

47. Ibid., M.1, p. 463. 

Nanak sachu dhiyaini sachu 

48. Ibid., M.1, p.687. 

sansaru rogi name tharu mailu lagai sach bina 

gur vaku nirmalu satha chananu nit sachu tirathu manjna 

49. Ibid.,M.l,p.1112. 

sachu gharu khoji lahe... 

nanak sacha sachai racha gurmukhi tariai tari 

50. Ibid., M.5, pp.272-73. 

brahamugiani parupkar oumaha 

51. Ibid., M.5, pp.1073-74. 

sacha takhatu sachi patisahi 

sachi kudarti sachi bani sachu sahib sukhu kija he 

52. Ibid., M.2, p.466. 

Haumai thiragh rogu hai tharu bhi esu mahi 

105

106

SECION II 

MEHODOLOGY 

107

108

9 

AN INTEGRATED METHODOLOGY FOR APPRAISAL OF 

SOURCES FOR SIKH STUDIES 

GOBIND SINGH MANSUKHANI 

109 

Sikhism has now been accepted as one of the major world 

religions. As such, it provides a new area for Religious studies. Western 

scholars have taken this opportunity to undertake its study. They try 

to evaluate the Sikh religion using their techniques and criteria of 

various other academic disciplines like history, sociology, philosophy, 

linguistics, anthropology, etc. Their methodologies though valid in 

their own materialistic fields, are not so useful for the in-depth 

evaluation of a sovereign and revelatory religion like Sikhism. Some 

of their narrow and often distorted approaches to Sikhism remind 

one of the stories of the six blind men’s opinions, on “What is an 

elephant like?” I am therefore making a plea for a balanced, 

homogenous and impartial examination of the sources of Sikh Studies. 

The primary sources for Sikh studies are the Guru Granth Sahib, 

accepted Gurbani in the Dasam Granth, and the approved 

compositions of Bhai Gurdas and Bhai Nandlal. The Secondary 

sources are, the Janamsakhis, Gurbilas series, Hukam-namas, 

Gurmattas, Rahat-namas and other books by writers from the 18th 

century to the present time. Where primary sources are silent, 

secondary sources can be useful. A secondary source, like Gurbilas 

Patshahi Chhevin by Sohan Kavi in 1718 throws light on the events in 

the life of the Sixth Guru. Prachin panth Prakash of Rattan Singh Bhangu 

furnishes ample details on the Missal period on the second half of the 

18th century. But their value is primarily historical. Another important 

secondary source is Giani Gian Singh’s Twarikh Guru Khalsa; Kavi 

Santokh Singh’s Gurpartap Suraj (1843) has given valuable information 

on many other aspects of Sikh history. The Mushm wnters, 

especially those connected with the Moghul Court, 

have frequently supplied biased or wrong information in

110 

their books and chronicles, which has often misled European writers of 

the 19th century. About the only exception is J.D. Cunningham’s history of 

the Sikhs (1848). They all throw some light on the Sikhs, their beliefs, 

practices and institutions but that has to be seen in the perspective of the 

handicap mentioned above. The new methodology which I am suggesting 

in this paper consists mainly of two parts - a consideration of Sikh tradition, 

and its relevance in Gurmat or Sikh philosophy and values. 

I. ORAL HISTORY 

Sikh traditions are a part of Oral History. This has recently been recognised 

as a valid component of any scholarly study. It was “established in 1948 

as part of a modern technique, for historical documentation when 

Columbia University historian Allan Nevin, began recording memoirs of 

persons significant in American life” 1 . It includes verbal testimonies, 

reported statements, legends, anecdotes, precedents, folk-tales etc. 

Prof. Nevin wrote: “The history of a nation is not in Parliaments and 

battle-fields, but in what the people say to each other on fair days and 

high days and in how they farm, quarrel and go on pilgrimage”. 2 The 

secondary sources of Sikh studies mentioned above fall under the 

“Discipline of Oral History”. 

Western scholarship regarding Sikhism suffers from three main 

handicaps. Firstly, many scholars de-value Sikhism by regarding it as a 

branch of Hinduism or as a mixture of other “isms”. For example, Dr. 

W.H. McLeod regards Guru Nanak’s gospel as a compound of 

Vaishnavism, Nathism and Santism. 3 He does not realise the 

distinctiveness of Sikhism or that Guru Nanak proclaimed a unique 

Faith and Revelation. Guru Arjan made this clear in Guru Granth 

Sahib, He wrote: 

“Na hum Hindu, Na Musalmaan”. (GGS, p.1136). 

(I am neither a Hindu nor a Muslim) 4 

The attitude of the German scholar - Ernest Trumpp - was equally 

narrow, nay hostile. His approach was linguistic; as such, he failed to 

understand the religious thoughts expressed in the Adi Granth, which he 

translated in part. He did not realise that the Gurus had only used the 

current and popular terminology in a new connotation. They gave a new 

meaning to popular words. For example, the word “Guru” in Hindu usage 

‘means a religious teacher or holy man, but in Sikhism Guru stands for the 

Bani or the Word or even God Himself (True Guru). “Bani Guru, Guru hai 

Bani, which Bani amrit sare.” (GGS, p.982) “Wah Wah BaniNirankar hai,

111 

tis jevad avar na koi.” (GGS, p.515) 

Secondly, Trumpp had no patience or perseverance. He wrote in 

the Preface: “The Sikh Granth is a very big volume which I find incoherent 

and shallow in the extreme and couched at the same time, in dark and 

perplexing language in order to cover these defects. It is for us 

occidentalists, a most painful and stupefying task to read even a single 

raga.” No wonder Maharaja Ripudaman Singh of Nabha complained to 

the Vicerol of India of the unsatisfactory nature of Trumpp’s translation. 5 

The second handicap for a western scholar is that he is primarily 

acquainted only with the Semitic religions and so his mind is preconditioned. 

He is often biased against eastern religions, which require a 

new approach, for they are based on different philosophies and visions. 

They call Sikhism a “Tradition”, which is less than a “Religion”, though it 

has all the elements and criteria of a world religion, namely “religious 

community, ritual, ethics, social and political involvement, Scripture, 

concepts, aesthetics, and spirituality”. 6 Even so, some of the western 

scholars like McLeod and Juergensmeyer question its inclusion as such. 

The latter states: “Perhaps the most important difficulty with Sikhism for 

the compilers of “World Religion” text-books is the question of whether 

Sikhism is, indeed a religion.” 7 This sort of concealed bias is evident in 

“their categories of analysis which inevitably tend to distort as much as 

they reveal”. 8 A word like “Syncretism” applied to Sikhism implies that 

while our (western) religion is ‘revealed’, theirs (Sikhism) is a mere 

syncretism. 

Similarly, a remark like the following shows the subtle twist and 

distortion to reflect adversely on the Sikh identity: “Much of Sikh 

distinctiveness would vanish if a community like the Sikhs were to become 

modern in religion and social practice, and the cement that binds the 

community would disappear as well.” 9 A slanted approach to Sikhs is 

obvious in the following remarks: Whereas for Nanak the ultimate matter 

was devotion to the True Name, for the present community, selfpreservation 

appears more important.” 10 Would it not apply to another 

religious community, say, for example, Christians and Jews struggling for 

survival on account of hostile and tyrannical rulers. 

There is no denying the fact that western writers often employ 

one set of criteria for evaluating Semitic religions and another set of criteria 

for assessing Oriental religions. Such approach, apart from being unfair, is 

neither rational nor academic.

112 

“Even when the tool of comparison/ contrast is used, the differential 

treatment which the Sikh religion has received at their hands is often 

negative. 

The third handicap is the actual analytical methodology as applied 

to the study of the principles and practices of religion. I am not against 

rational standards and scientific techniques in general, but to apply them 

to Revelations or to metaphysical experiences is not only fruitless, but also 

counter-productive. In this context Dr. S. Radhakrishnan wrote: “Indian 

philosophy makes unquestioned and extensive use of reason, but intuition 

is accepted as the only method through which the ultimate can be 

known......Intellectual knowledge is not enough”. 10A 

11 THE DRAWBACKS OF ANALYTICAL METHOD OLOCY 

The analytical method is not suited to the perception of matters of the 

spirit, as for example on God, on the Creation, to mortal’s goal and his 

spiritual nature. Firstly, the laws of logical proof cannot be applied to the 

experiential aspect of man and his feelings of Love, Beauty, Truth, Peace, 

Happiness. These cannot be analysed, even though they form the very 

sources of man’s uplift. The vision of God is not subject to verification. 

God is beyond physical observation, beyond time and space (Akal Moorat). 

Spiritual experiences cannot be analysed, nor can revelation or hymnody 

be subjected to dissection. You destroy the beauty and fragrance of a flower 

if you rub its petals to locate its tenderness and aroma. How can one probe 

or verify the revelation of Guru Nanak, except by his own testimony given 

in the Adi Granth. 11 

In this connection, the words of James Hastings, author of the 

Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics are quite relevant. He says: “The very 

nature of the subject of religion forbids one-sided treatment, which 

obviously the analyst’s method entails. He is an outsider watching another 

religion different from his own. This demands impartiality and objectivity. He 

has to be careful and cautious in avoiding treading on another’s toes,” He 

therefore lays stress on the golden rule of criticism, “that the study must be 

conducted with the clearest recognition of the fact that the subject concerns 

the most vital beliefs and practices of human beings, all of which, on purely 

scientific grounds, be regarded as closely related physiologically and 

psychologically. Further, it must be pursued as thoroughly as possible, with that 

consideration for the conviction of others, that one would ask for one’s own.” 

12 In other words, would the analyst judge his own religion with the same

113 

yard-stick he applies to another religion? Western scholars include ‘myths’ 

in the history of their own religion, while rejecting similar myths in other 

religious tradi tions. In this connection the following observation of D’ 

Flaherty is quite relevant: “I don’t think we need to regard our own history 

as myth, but I think we have a misplaced faith in our secular records of the 

past that we enshrine in the word ‘history’, which word we then refuse to 

accord to other peoples’, records, secular or scriptural. 12A 

Secondly, the ‘external’ approach in itself excludes sympathy with 

the religion under study. Prof. C. Biswas remarks in this connection: “For 

it would be incontrovertibly demonstrated that systems of religious thought 

are also very significant conceptual systems, like the analyst’s own, having 

their own complete set of rules and terms, tools and procedures, so as 

justifiably to demand a proper examination from within also, before any 

final assessment in regard to their meaningfulness or otherwise is made”. 

This alternate approach is called the “Rationality of faith”. M.A. Stole 

wrote in this connection: “There is a rational sui generis in religious thought, 

that is not encompassed by science, and by the purely scientific standards 

of the reasonable acceptance of hypothesis or rationality, whose nature 

and significance are now only beginning to be understood”. 13 

Thirdly, the analytical critic of religion tends to neglect the spiritual 

nature of man. Man is not only the body, but also the mind and the soul. 

Dr. Alister Hardy, a former Professor of Zoology at Oxford University 

wrote: “Man’s religious and spiritual experiences are shown in his feelings 

for a transcendental reality, a desire that some thing other than himself can 

be actually sensed, a desire to personalise this presence as a deity to have 

a private I-Thou relationship with it, communicating through prayer”. 14 

Elsewhere, he observed: “Science cannot deal with the essence of religion 

any more than it can with the nature of art or the poetry of human love”. 15 

Religion is an inner experience, beyond the prism-pendulum-chronograph 

methods of the scientist or the materialistic standards of criticism. 

Let us take some examples of the analytical method from Dr. 

McLeod’s works on Sikh studies. He does not accept the Janamsakhis as 

reliable narratives on Guru Nanak’s life. He devalues them and rejects most 

of them as depicting miracles or other improbable events. Of 124 stories 

of Guru Nanak, listed by him, 29 stones are discredited on the grounds that 

they are miracle

114 

stories, including the important ones like “Panja Sahib” and “Visit to 

Mecca”. The Panja Sahib story is unacceptable to him as “an aetiological 

legend” and he excludes it. Dr. N.Q. King challenges McLeod’s rejection 

of the story, affirming that “criticalscholarship has here performed less 

than its best with regard to one of the sacred things for which the Sikhs are 

willing to lay down their lives (a reference to the Train Tragedy in 1921, 

when the train crushed to death a number of Sikhs at Hasan Abdal Railway 

Station). A few chance remarks by passers-by and the reports of later 

visitors, is enough to produce the label ‘invention by tradition,. 16 Dr. King’s 

comment is that McLeod should have used his better judgment and lived 

up to the basic tenet of critical scholarship: “If you ask an ancient source 

a question, and it gives a nonsense reply, rethink your question”. 17 Three 

other stories are rejected, because McLeod thinks, they were introduced to 

provide settings for the Guru’s verses, Even stories common to all the 

Janamsakhies are rejected as for example, the visit to mount Sumer, the 

discourse with Shaikh Ibrahim, the cannibal’s cauldron, while others are 

rejected on the ground of lack of corroboration, 18 John Carman criticises 

McLeod’s approach to the Janamsakhis as under: 

“Unfortunately, his (McLeod’s) application of rationlist historical 

standard in evaluating the Janamsakhis deprives him of most of the very 

evidence he seeks concerning of the nature of Guru Nanak’s personality, 

for this evidence seems to me most clearly to be found in the impact of the 

Guru on his immediate followers and those of the following 

generations.18A 

In short, out of 124 stories, he dismisses 87 as either impossible, 

improbable or possible. The remaining 37 stories he considers ‘Probable’. 

He sums up the life of Guru Nanak in a little over one page. 19 

McLeod forgets that the Janamsakhis are not biographies, in the 

sense in which we understand them today. Prof. J.A. Veitch writes in this 

connection: “Stories which are part and parcel of all religious traditions 

provide the media through which truths are expressed. The question to be 

asked of stories illustrating difficult incidents in the life of founders of the 

great religious traditions (such as Guru Nanak, Goutama Buddha, 

Muhammed and Jesus) is not “Did it really happen in the way described?” 

but “What religious truth is being expressed in the story?” However, with 

his negative approach, McLeod only highlights the hagiographic nature of 

the Janamsakhis, and their general lack of reliability, as

115 

far as the historical Nanak is concerned. He states his draconian dictum as 

follows: “Unlike the prisoner in a court of law, Janamsakhis must be held 

guilty until proved innocent”.19A Returning to the analytical study of the 

Janamsakhis, as attempted by McLeod we may note that he has rejected an 

important event of the Guru’s life on minor points of interpretation. Guru 

Nanak’s visit to Baghdad and his meeting with Bahlol Dana is dismissed 

on flimsy grounds. Bhai Gurdas (1551-1637) wrote clearly that Guru Nanak 

did visit Baghdad. His source of information would be Baba Buddha who 

was also a contemporary of Guru Nanak. Moreover, this visit is confirmed 

by Swami Anand Acharya, who in his book entitled Snow-birds wrote a poem 

entitled “On reading an Arabic inscription in a shrine outside the town of 

Baghdad, dated 912 Hijra”: 

“Here spoke the Hindu Guru Nanak to Fakir Bahlol, 

And for these sixty winters, since the Guru left Iran, 

The soul of Bahlol has rested on the Master’s word 

Like a bee poised on a dawn-lilt honey-rose”. 

The English translation of the Turkish/Arabic inscription provided 

by the late Dr. Ganda Singh, an eminent historian and linguist is as under: 

“See how the most Glorious Lord God fulfilled the wish 

That for Baba Nanak new structure he built, 

Seven saints helped (therein) 

That its date (worked out to be that) 

The fortunate disciJ’le made to flow to new (spring or well of) water 

in the land. 927". 20 

Prof. Harbans Singh offers an alternate rendering by J. Tekin and 

says that the tradition of the visit to Baghdad is strong and persistent. 21 

McLeod relies entirely on the translation of Mr. Menage and states that the 

inscription does not refer to Guru Nanak. 22 This is rather surprising in view 

of the amount of evidence substantiating the visit of Guru Nanak to 

Baghdad given by Janamsakhis especially Vilayawali Janamsakhi’ and 

Meherban Janamsakhi. 

Similarly McLeod rejects Guru Nanak’ s visit to Mecca though is 

confirmed by Bhai Gurdas and supported by Meherban Janamsakhl. How 

unreasonable it is for McLeod to throw out an Incident which is confirmed 

additionally by a majority of Janamsa khis. 

Dr. McLeod’s first myth, in his own words, is, “The means of

116 

salvation consists in loyalty to the person of Baba Nanak and the acceptance 

of his teachings”. This is not correct because a soul’s deliverance is also a 

possibility in any other religion, for the Guru Granth Sahib accepts the 

validity of all other Faiths: 

“Jagat jalanda rakh leh apnee kirpa dhar, 

Jit duware ubare titay leh ubar.” (GGS. p.853) 

(O Lord! Save this burning world through your grace, 

Save the people, by whatever way (religious path) they can 

be saved. 

Dr. McLeod’ second myth is that the function of Janamsakhis is “to 

behold the presence of Baba Nanak, or in other words, his darshan”. He 

elucidates this point in the following words: “The primary purpose of the 

Janamsakhis was to provide that permanent presence or at least a 

satisfactory substitute (or in other words), a verbalised record of past 

situations. Death, disability or distance need not raise any insuperable 

obstacles to regular darsan, for darsan could be obtained through the true 

testimony (sakhi) of the Guru’s life and utterances. The understanding of 

darsan which this implied, was the same as the understanding of a personal 

darsan.Whereas for some devotees, a personal visit to the chosen Master 

would necessarily involve some direct teaching and also observing of the 

Master’s own example, others would be content to merely appear before 

him. The same variety of understanding could also be applied to the 

Janamsakhis ... Faith alone was not enough. There must also be personal 

participation”. 23 This insistence on darsan or personal participation in 

beholding the presence of the Guru, as a great spiritual attainment, is not 

in accordance with the Guru’s personal view. In his Scripture, the Guru 

abserves: 

“Satgur noo subh ko vekhada, jeta sagal sansar, 

Dithhe mukt na hovaee, jab lag sabad na kare veechar”. 

(GGG, p.594) 

(The whole world has a sight of the Guru. Only looking at him, 

brings no liberation, that only comes from devotion to the Holy word). 

Spiritual merit is not acquired by darsan, but by putting into practice the 

Guru’s word. That is why a proper understanding of the basic Sikh 

postulates is necessary before writing on any topic of Sikh studies. It is 

evident that writers whether western or eastern would continue making 

such obvious mistakes and misinterpretation so long as they remain ignorant 

of the Gurubani, the Sikh thesis and its doctrines.

117 

III BHATT-VAHIS 

Another important source of Sikh Oral History recently discovered is the 

so-called Bhatt-vahis, which are the family chronicles and diaries maintained 

by Bhatt families during the last four centuries. The Bhatts were descendents 

of Bhatt Bhagirathand devotees of Guru Amardas. Some of the poetic 

compositions of Bhagirath’s grandson, namely, Mathura, Jalap and Kirat 

are actually included in Guru Granth Sahib. Their descendents Karsindhu 

and Talunda lived in the Jind district of the Punjab, with some relatives 

settling in Jagadhri and Saharanpur. They wrote in a script called 

“Bhatakshri”. Giani Garja Singh (1904-1977) studied these records and 

found in them confirmation of certain events in past Sikh History. We have 

in the Bhatt-vahis a lot of information on Guru Arjan and also Guru 

Hargobind’s life, with the chronology of his wars with the Moghuls. The 

later records also furnish useful information on Guru Tegh Bahadur. They 

give details of his first arrest at Dhamtan and his confinement in prison at 

Sarhind from which the Guru was released, and later re-arrested on 12th 

July 1675 at Malikpur and sent to Delhi with his followers, subsequently 

to be executed. Bhatt-Vahi Jadavbansian records that the body of Guru Tegh 

Bahadur was cremated in a house situated on the outskirts of Delhi called 

Raisana 24 

The Bhatts were keenly interested in the activities of Guru Gobind Singh. 

Bhai Sewa Ram’s Shahid Vilas gives us reliable data on the life and 

achievements of important Sikhs in the later Moghul period. 25 They also 

throw light on the work of Bhai Mani Singh. Further, extratcs from the 

Bhatt-vahis are included in the book of S.S. Gandhi. 26 Such sources must 

now be re-studied, for they may supply the missing links in our present 

knowledge of Sikh history. 

IV GURMA T 

Another important criterion of the proposed methodology is to relate the 

secondary sources and the events and actions they disclose to the test of 

Sikh ontology and its basic Gurmat validity. This would enable us to show 

how Sikh beliefs and practices are different from the basic concepts of 

Hinduism. For example, take the Mool-mantra which gives a fine outline of 

the nature of God and the basic Sikh creed: 

IK OANKAR SATNAM…….GUR PARSAD. 

McLeod equates OM with OANKAR as shown below in his 

book on Guru Nanak. 27

118 

I OM sati Namu karta purukha nirvairu akal murati ajuni saibhan 

gur prasadi. 

These two are much different. Perhaps this matter will need to be 

discussed at another time and in another place. 

I may now state the essence of Gurmat in a few formulations below: 

1. The world is real and life’s problems must be faced with courage. 

2. Man has the capacity to experience the Divine. The Guru says: 

“Man! you are an embodiment of light; Know your roots, for God 

is within you”. (GGG.p.441) 

The goal of human life is the total development of the body, mind 

and soul, so as to liberate the self from egoism while still alive. 

3. Family life and society provide the best forum for the practice of 

righteousness. In it, both men and women have equal rights and 

opportunities and can help each other in secular attainment and 

spiritual fulfilment. 

4. The main hurdle to God-realisation within the self is the Ego. This 

can be crushed by leading a life of humility and service. 

5. Self-discipline and self-development go hand in hand. Honest and 

selfless living, sharing one’s earnings with others in need, and 

following the path of virtue are the steps to self-realisation. 

6. Fear not and frighten not; maintain human dignity and freedom. 

When confronted by injustice and tyranny, Sikhism encourages 

resistance. Only when all peaceful methods have failed, is armed 

resistance permissible. Militarisation is often the last-resort remedy 

for the vindication of human dignity and moral values. 

7. Devotion to God and an awareness of His attributes give man a 

sense of peace and bliss, confirming his strong belief that leading 

a truthful life is higher than Truth. 

8. Salvation in Sikhism does not require self-mortification or 

deprivation, but the establishment of a link with God. We should 

retain our own identity and seek for bliss in our daily chores and 

duties. 

9. Meditation encourages God-Awareness; it is available to all. So a 

Sikh desires social salvation or uplift of the community, so that the 

world may become a better place to live in. 

10. A Khalsa - baptised Sikh - should follow the strict discipline

119 

of the Rahat-Maryada. He becomes a saint-soldier who serves as a 

torch-bearer to others. He should destroy the forces of evil and 

authoritarianism and promote goodness. 

11. Finally, the goal of the Sikhs is to establish a just social order with 

peace and prosperity for the world. The Guru had this vision, which 

is expressed in the Sikh Scripture as under: 

“Hun Hukam hoa meharman da - Koun Kisay Rajavinda”. 

(GGG. p.74) 

(Now is the gracious Lord’s ordinance promulgated; none to 

another shall cause hurt; 

All mankind now in peace shall abide-gentle shall the 

governance be.) 

Gurmat is consistent in its doctrines and philosophy. The Gurus 

practised what they preached. Some incidents or so-called facts mentioned 

in some secondary sources do not tally with Gurmat, and as such, they have 

to be rejected, because they are against the principles of Sikhism. For 

example, the author of Gurbilas states that Guru Gobind Singh worshipped 

a goddess called Naina Devi; 28 this is in opposition to Gurmat and is to be 

rejected. In case of any difficulty or controversy, one should apply the test 

of Gurmat. Some of the controversies can be settled by reference to the 

GURU GRANTH SAHIB. One such case arose in 1920 in the Harmandar 

Sahib, Amritsar, when the priests (pujaris) refused to accept the Karah 

Parsad offered by some Mazabhi Sikhs. The refusal being inconsistent with 

Gurbani was given up and the Parsad accepted. 

Guru Gobind Singh before his death, passed on his spiritual 

succession to the Guru Granth Sahib, and his temporal succession to the 

Khalsa Panth. The Khalsa Panth was given a collective authority, to pass 

Gurmatta on any problem or in an emergency facing the Sikh Community. 

A Gurmatta as a Guru’s decision is respected by the entire Sikh community. 

During the 18th century when the Sikhs were joined in a grim struggle. for 

their own survival, they always implemented Gurmattas. In any case of 

collective contingency or future problem, the final forum is with a Gurmatta 

arrived at in the presence of the Guru Granth Sahib, when the issue before 

it, could be decided. 

V CONCLUSION 

In the study of a religion, there are two distinct areas, namely, (i) 

historica.l authenticity of the record, (ii) the internal consistency of the 

religious doctrines and practices. The technique of analysis

120 

has to be used carefully and separately in these two categories. To interpret 

any lack of a written corroboration, either of an historical event as proof 

of its non-event, or as an inconsistency in its philosophical system or 

principles, is bad logic. One cannot challenge the Sikh way of life, simply 

because it may lack corroborative evidence in some detail in the secondary 

sources. As such, the integrated methodology mentioned above will not 

only be useful, but also richly improve the quality of Sikh studies. 

REFERENCES 

1 Thompson Paul: The Voice of the Past - Oral History (Oxford) p.54. 

2 Oral History Review, 1980, p.2S. 

3 McLeod: Evolution of the Sikh Community, p.S. 

4 Translation of the Punjabi quotation which preceeds is given within brackets. 

5 Sikh Review, June 1974, p.46. 

6 Frank Whaling & Kenneth Holmes Ed. Compassion through Understanding, 

p.172,1988. 

7 M. Juergensmeyer & N.G. Barrier: Sikh Studies, Berkley, 1979, p.1S. 

8 James R. Lewis: some Unexamined Assumptions in Western Studies of Sikhism, The Sikh 

Courier, London (Spring/Summer 1989) p.1 

9 Juergensmeyer (lbid) E.F. Irschick’s article: “Sikhism as a Category of Study”, p.53 

10 R. D. Baird& Alfred Bloom: Indian and Far Eastern Religious Traditions, p.l05, 1972. 

10A S.Radha Krishnan & A.C. Moore: A source-book in Indian Philosophy, 

.XXIV 

11 See page l50 of the Adi Granth. 

12 James Hastings: Encyclopaedia of Religion & Ethics, Vol. 10, p.662. 

12A D’ Flahesty : Other People Myths, p.172. 

13 Stole M.A Reason and Scepticism, p.215. 

14 A Hardy: The Spiritual Nature of Man, p.13l. 

15 A Hardy: The Biology of God, p.4. 

16 A Hardy: The Biology of God, p.4. 

17 Gurdev Singh: Perspectives, p.51. 

18 Ibid., p.50. 

18A Harbans Singh : Perspectives on Guru Nanak, p.377. 

19 McLeod: Guru Nanak and the Sikh Religion, p.146. 

19A Ibid., The Evolution of the sikh Community,, p.26

20 Papers on Guru Nanak, Punjabi Univ. Patiala, p.194. 

21 Harbans Singh: Guru Nanak and the Origins of the Sikh Faith, p.228. 

22 McLeod: Guru Nanak and the Sikh Religion, p.132. 

23 McLeod: Early Sikh Tradition, p.242. 

24 HarbansSingh: Guru Tegh Bahadur, Delhi, 1980, p.101. 

25 S.S. Gandhi: History of the Sikh Gurus, 1978, p.585. 

26 Ibid., pp.586-591. 

27 McLeod: Guru Nanak and the Sikh Religion, p.l63. 

28. Sohan Singh Seeal : Sikh Ithas de Somay (in Punjab), Ludhiana, P.297. 

121

122

SECION III 

SIKH HISTORY 

123

124

10 

GURU ARJAN DEV - THE FIFfH NANAK 

AN APOSTLE OF PEACE (1563-1606) 

SURINDER SINGH KOHLI 

125 

In the Var Ramkali ofSatta and Balwand in Guru Granth Sahib, 

it is recorded: “Now Arjan, the Guru, is seated on Nanak’s throne, his 

canopy sparkles and illumines the four corners of the world.” Another 

bard Kala says, “Guru Ramdas blessed Guru Arjan like philosopher’s 

stone, which transmutes all it touches into gold.” (Adi Granth p.1404). 

Another bard Mathura says, “In the sea of Kali age, the Lord’s Name 

has become manifest through Guru Arjan to save the world.” (Adi 

Granth p.1409). Bhai Gurdas, the Sikh theologian writes in his twentyfourth 

Var: “People from all the four directions bowed to him (Guru 

Arjan) and the innumerable Sikhs used to assemble in his presence. 

The Guru-Shabda or the Name of the Lord was served freely; the perfect 

Guru had the perfect discipline. There waved God’s canopy over the 

Gurmukh (the Enlightened one), who was immersed in the Supreme 

State of the Unity with the Transcendent Lord.” (Pauri 20) Such is the 

first hand report about the personality of Guru Arjan Dev. 

A Short Sketch of the Life of Guru Arjan Dev: Guru Arjan Dev 

was the youngest son of Guru Ramdas, the fourth Sikh Guru. Out of 

his two brothers Mahadev was a recluse, but the eldest Prithi Chand 

was a highly self-centred and unspiritual person. As soon as decision 

for succession was announced, he turned violently hostile towards 

Guru Arjan Dev and caused great problems for him. He proclaimed 

himself as the Guru and created a cleavage among the Sikhs, though 

his machinations were thwarted to a great extent by the two venerable 

Sikhs Baba Buddha and Bhai Gurdas. He remained inimical towards 

the Guru throughout his life and even approached and conspired with 

the like-minded officials for

126 

regaining the high position of Guruship. He even tried to poison 

Hargobind, the son of Guru Arjan Dev, so that his own son Mehervan 

should get the next chance of Guruship. He and his son began to compose 

hymns under the name “Nanak” in order to be recognised as suitable 

successors to the previous Gurus, because Guru Arjan Dev had begun to 

compose hymns at a very early age, and which had attraced the attention 

of his father. 

The Sikh organisation was firmly established by two important 

works undertaken by Guru Arjan Dev. He prepared the basic scripture of 

the Sikh Religion, compiling the hymns and compositions of not only the 

Sikh Gurus preceding him, but also the hymns of the like-minded pre- 

Nanak radical saints. On a complaint from the adversaries of the Guru, 

the Emperor, Akbar the Great, satisfied himself that there was nothing 

antagonistic in it towards other religions, especially Islam. The other 

important work that was undertaken by the Guru was the completion of 

the tank and the construction of a central holy shrine for the Sikhs, where 

they could gather on significant occasions. Because of great financial 

necessity for the Panth and for building the shrine, the Guru asked all his 

Sikhs to donate one-tenth of their income (daswandh) in the name of the 

Guru. The Muslim news writers considered such donation as a tax levied 

by the Guru. 

Erection of the Sikh Shrine by Guru Arjan Dev: The site achieved 

prominence in the times of the Sikh Gurus. Guru Nanak Dev, during his 

journeys, met the young Buddha (Baba Buddha) at this place, who played 

a prominent part in the Sikh movement. The site lay amidst the villages of 

Sultan wind, Tung, Gumtala and Gilwali in the pargana of Jhabal. The third 

Sikh Guru, Guru Amar Das, selected this site for his son-in-law Ramdas, 

on whom he wanted to bestow the Guruship and thus keep him away from 

his own progeny, in order to avoid any clash. It is believed that the land of 

the site was granted to Guru Amar Das by Emperor Akbar, when he met 

the Guru at Goindwal on his way to Lahore. But most probably, the land 

was presented by the inhabitants of Sultanwind out of their great reverence 

for the Guru. The legendary importance of the site known to the people of 

the area about the episode of Rajani, a daughter of Rai Duni Chand, a 

kardar(revenue-collector) of Patti highlights the medicinal properties of the waters 

of the pool. She is said to have brought her leper-husband here, who, after 

having a dip in the pool, was cured of the ailment. Guru Amar Das passed 

away in A.D. 1574 and in the same year his successor Guru

127 

Ramdas settled down by the site of the pool. The original habita,tion was 

known by the name Chak. Because of its association with the Guru, it 

was called Chak Guru or Guru ka Chak, sometimes called Chak Guru 

Ramdas. Later on it came to be known as Ramdas Pura. 

Construction of the tank: Guru Ramdas formulated his plan of the 

construction work of the tank and the town. Undoubtedly, some elementary 

work regarding the tank was begun by Guru Amar Das, but most of the 

work of excavation was accomplished in the time of Guru Ramdas. Bhai 

Gurdas has referred to this task of excavation in his first Var. Originally, 

the tank became famous as Ramdas Sar or Ramdas Sarovar. These names 

occur in the verses of Guru Arjan Dev in the Adi Granth alongwith the 

name of the town as Ramdas Pur. It is recorded that at the time of 

excavation, the Guru used to sit under a Ber tree and supervise the work. 

The Amrit Sarovar or the holy tank remained enclosed in kachcha construction 

until A.D. 1581, when Guru Arjan Dev ascended the throne of Guruship. 

Then the tank was made pucca and the stairs of the enclosure were bricked. 

The bottom of the tank was a~so a ttended to. A grea t deal of voluntary 

service was done by the Sikhs and with their selfless and enthusiastic efforts, 

the construction work of the tank was completed within a short period. 

The Guru attributed the feat to the Grace of the Lord. The name of Amritsar 

(the tank of nectar or immortality) was given to the tank and the city also 

came to be known by this name. While the work of the construction of the 

tank was still going on, the Guru had consultations with the elderly and 

devout Sikhs, especially Baba Buddha, regarding the construction of the 

holy shrine. It was ultimately decided by him that the shrine be built in the 

centre of the tank, where the Name of the Lord is symbolised. This shrine 

would be the Lord’s shrine (Har Mandir). The plan of the Guru was welcomed 

by the Sikhs. 

The foundation stone laying of Harmandir: According to the tradition, 

the foundation of the sacred shrine was laid by Hazrat Mian Mir, the famous 

contemporary Sufi saint of the Qadiri Order m A.D. 1588. Chulam Muhayyud-Din 

alias Bute Shah states in his work Tawarikh-i-Punjab that Shah Mian 

Mir came to Amritsar at the request of Guru Arjan Dev and he with his 

own blessed hands put four bricks, one on each side and another in the 

middle of the tank. This ceremony of the laying of the foundation stone is 

also recorded in The Punjab Notes and Queries,Vol. I, p.141. According 

to the Sikh records, the foundation-stone was laid by Guru Arjan

128 

Dev himself. The foundation that was laid originally was very solid. It was 

laid on a higher level than the bottom of the tank. A bridge connecting 

the foundation of Har Mandir with the entrance gate (Darshani Deorhi) 

was constructed over the props of aquaducts (Surang Dwaries) and arches 

(mehrabs), Construction of Harmandir : In the traditional Hindu temple 

architecture, buildings of the temples were built on a higher level, but in 

the case of Har Mandir, it was built on a level lower than the surrounding 

ground. The devotees who come to visit the temple have to go down the 

steps in order to pay obeisance at the sacred temple. This denotes the 

utmost humility of the Sikh devotees who love to lie in the state of 

prostration at the feet of the Lord and in the service of humanity. The 

Lord being Omnipresent and His created humanity living, in all the four 

directions, the Har Mandir was kept open from all the sides, Every one is 

free to enter the Golden Temple from any direction, This has been another 

distinguishing feature of the Sikh Temple. The plan of the construction 

of Har Mandir was excuted by Guru Arjan Dev himself assisted by a 

council of elderly devout Sikhs including Baba Buddha and Bhai Gurdas. 

Bhai Bahlo was an expert in brick-making, therefore he was entrusted 

with that task. Bhai Salo, Bhai Bhagtu, Bhai Kalyana and Bhai Paira were 

asked to arrange the building materials. Thus a magnificent structure was 

raised, with its matchless design and beauty. There came into being a 

great place of pilgrimage for the Sikhs. In the life-time of Guru Arjan 

Dev, Ramdaspur (Amritsar) grew into a flourishing town. Members of 

over fifty caste-groups came to settle here from Patti, Kasur and Kalanaur. 

A market known till to~day as Guru ka Bazar was established. A good 

number of bankers and traders became the residents of the town, which 

became a great trade-centre. The adventurous Sikhs were even sent to 

Turkistan to purchase horses there and sell them in India. 

The preparation of the Sikh Scripture: The compilation of the Adi 

Granth began, when Guru Nanak Dev, during his travels had his notebook 

called “Pothi”, A mention of the Pothi has been made in Puratan 

Janamsakhi. This Pothi was passed on to the second Guru, Guru Angad 

Dev, when the Guruship was bestowed on him. We cannot say with 

certainty the names of the saints, whose verses were included in it, because 

it could not be preserved. During his travels, Guru Nanak Dev might 

have collected the hymns of Kabir and Ravidas in Uttar Pradesh, of Jaidev 

in Bengal, of Namdev and

129 

Trilochan in Maharashtra and of Sheikh Farid in Punjab. It seems likely 

on the basis of the Pothis of Baba Mohan, one of whose source of 

compilation must have been the Pothi of Guru Nanak Dev, Which must 

have-been received by Guru Amar Das, the third Guru from the second 

Guru. We find mention of the four Pothis of Baba Mohan, two of which 

have been preserved and the other two have been lost. Baba Mohan, the 

son of Guru Amar Das was in the possession of these Pothis when the 

fifth Guru, Guru Arjan Dev, compiled Granth Sahib. The Guru went himself 

to take these Pothis, which were ultimately handed over to him, though 

hesitantly. These manuscripts were prepared earlier under the personal 

supervision of Guru Amar Das, by his grandson Sahansar Ram. One of 

the available manuscripts is at Patiala and the other at Ahiyapur, district 

Hoshiarpur. The first manuscript consists of 300 leaves and the second 

224. Every leaf contains thirteen lines and every line about thirteen words. 

The first manuscript begins with Suhi Raga and the second with Ramkali 

Raga. Both the manuscripts together contain hymns in fifteen Ragas. At 

the en,d of each Raga, the bani of the saints is given. It seems evident that 

the bani of other Ragas had been included in the other two manuscripts, 

which have been lost. Gyani Gyan Singh, the author of Twarikh Guru 

Khalsa, according to his statement, had seen one of these manuscripts 

beginning with Sri Raga. 

The compilation of the bani of Guru Nanak Dev and the like-minded 

saints was a Herculian task. The bani of Guru Angad Dev, Guru Amar 

Das and Guru Ramdas had been preserved in the house of the Guru, but 

the bani of Guru Nanak Dev lay scattered far and wide because of the 

extensive travels of the Guru. A Hukarnnama (an order) of the fifth Guru 

was circulated to all the Sikh centres, both inside and outside the country, 

for the collection of the bani of Guru Nanak Dev, The Sikh Sangats of far 

and near, complying with the orders of the fifth Guru, sent the compositions 

of Guru Nanak Dev preserved by them. Guru Nanak Dev and his 

successors had composed their verses under the name “Nanak”. In order 

to differentiate the verses of each Guru the serial number of Guruship 

was mentioned with them adding the word Mahla. Since the religion ot 

Guru Nanak Dev was spreading far and wide, the hymns of the Gurus 

were becoming popular day by day. There were several others in those 

days, who were passing on their verses under the name

130 

“Nanak”, therefore it was a huge task to separate the real verses from the 

false ones. Since the hymns under the name “Nanak” were increasing 

with time, the Sikhs requested Guru Arjan Dev to select the genuine 

verses from them. It was very difficult for them to discriminate between 

the genuine and the false verses. It was in this context that the idea of 

Granth Sahib originated. In this way, he preserved the poetry of his 

predecessors and other saint-poets for posterity. 

It is said that the elder brother of Guru Arjan Dev, Prithi Chand 

by name, had also been trying to compose and get composed hymns and 

pass them on as those of Guru Nanak Dev and other Gurus. In this way 

he wanted to be recognised as the Guru. According to Kesar Singh 

Chhibbar, as recorded in his Bansavali Nama, “Meharvan the son of Prithia 

(Prithi Chand) used to compose poetry. He studied Persian, Hindvi, 

Sahaskrit and Gurmukhi. He composed a lot of poetry, putting the name 

“Nanak” at the end of his poems. The Dooms (minstrels) began to sing the 

hymns of Meenas (Prithi Chand and his followers). They created another 

Guruship. These Meenas got prepared a Granth (holy book) and interspersed 

the hymns of the first four Gurus. The Purohits and Brahmins took sides, 

some to this side and some to that. Those who went to the other side were 

inimical to those belonging to this side. Those who came to this side left 

their (that of the other side) court... Here the Sikh Rababis were employed 

for Kirtan (congregational singing). Some Sikh recited here a hymn 

composed by Meharvan, which was heard by Guru Arjan Dev. He said to 

Bhai Gurdas: “The hymns of the Gurus must be separated. The Meenas 

are going to mix up hymns, which should be set in order.” 

Bhai Gurdas was the scribe, who wrote Granth Sahib in Gurmukhi 

script, which was one of the prevalent scripts in Punjab in those days. 

Guru Arjan Dev collected all the material for Granth Sahib, which came 

from several sources. The bards had left their panegyrics with the Gurus, 

whom they had met in their lives. The hymns of Guru Nanak Dev had 

been collected from far and near. The hymns of the succeeding Gurus 

had been there in the house of the Guru. The hymns of the like-minded 

saints had been collected from their followers, though some of the hymns 

had been included in the Pothis of Guru Nanak Dev and Baba Mohan. 

The saints had been travelling extensively within the length and breadth 

of India. The Maharashtrian saint Namdev is said to have visited Punjab 

during his lifetime. There is a shrine in his name at village Ghuman of 

Gurdaspur district. Several other saints like Kabir, Ravidas and

131 

others. had been intimately known to the people of Punjab through their 

devotees and popular hymns. The popularity of the saints like Namdev, 

Kabir, Ravidas, Sain and Trilochan can be well imagined through the 

verses of the third, fourth and fifth Sikhh Gurus. 

After compiling the material from different sources for Granth 

Sahib, Guru Arjan Dev started the work of editing the great scripture 

within the bounds of Ramsar, Amritsar. The compilation work had been 

finished in AD. 1601 and for the next three years, the work of editing was 

done and compieted in AD. 1604. The scribe of the first edited recension 

was Bhai Gurdas, the great Sikh savant and poet. The very first 

consideration for the inclusion of 

the hymns of various saints for the new anthology was the ideology of 

Guru Nanak Dev. Another criterion besides the ideology was that of the 

musical modes. 

Installation of the Sikh scripture in Hannandir : After the completion 

of the holy temple, the next remarkable development was the compilation 

and editing of Granth Sahib, the Sikh scripture. As recorded by M.A. 

Macauliffe in “The Sikh Religion”, Guru Arjan, Dev invited all his Sikhs 

to see the precious compilation, the fruit of so much anxious labour, and 

distributed sacred food amongst them as a thanks - giving for the completion 

of the scripture. The volume was by the advice of Baba Buddha and Bhai 

Gurdas placed in the Har Mandir. At the conclusion of his task, the Guru 

told his Sikhs that the Granth Sahib was the embodiment of the Gurus, 

and should, therefore, be held in extreme reverence. Baba Buddha was 

made the first Granthi (high-priest) of Har Mandir. Granth Sahib was installed 

in the centre of the shrine, in order to spread its divine message in all 

directions. The Guruship was later bestowed on Granth Sahib or the Adi 

Granth (the First Book) by the Tenth Guru, Guru Gobind Singh, in AD. 

1708. 

The growing influence of the Sikh Movement: Guru Arjan Dev was a 

great organiser. Because of the above mentioned two projects, firstly, the 

shrine of Golden Temple and secondly, the Granth Sahib, the scripture, 

the number of Sikhs increased immensely in Punjab. They attracted many 

Sikhs from far and near. The masands appointed by the Guru for the 

collection of Guru’s dues came on Baisakhi day every year with a good 

number of Sikhs. The universal message of the new religion brought many 

new converts, not only from the Hindu fold but from Muslims also. This 

fact has been recorded by Emperor Jahangir in his Tuzuk, wherem 

he says: “So many of the simple-minded Hindus, nay,

132 

many foolish Muslims too, had been fascinated by his (Guru’s) ways and 

teachings. He was noised about as religious and worldly leader. They called 

him Guru, and from all directions crowds of fools would come to him 

and express great devotion to him. This busy traffic had been carried on 

for three or four generations. For years the thought had been presenting 

itself to my mind that either I should put an end to this false traffic, or he 

should be brought into the fold of Islam.” Guru Arjan was peace-loving 

and totally imbued with the Name of the Lord, having his mace of humility 

and double-edged sword of modesty. Frederic Pincott says: “Guru Arjan, 

the fifth Guru, was an active and ambitious man. He laid aside the dress 

of a faqir, which had been worn by all his predecessors, and converted the 

voluntary offerings of his disciples into a tax. This raised him to some 

importance, and enabled him to take men into his pay, a proceeding which 

conferred additional dignity upon him, and at the same time, intensified 

the jealousy of his Muhammedan neighbours.” A. Barth, the author of 

The Religions of India says, “He (the Guru) was the first to surround himself 

with the paraphernalia of royalty, and he took advantage of his power to 

play a political part.” All this is a misrepresentation, because Guru was 

called Sacha Patshah (True Emperor) by the Sikhs. 

The guru as first martyr of Sikhism : After the death of Akbar the 

Great, Jehangir ascended the throne of Delhi. He came under the impact 

of Mujaddid Alf-i-Sani Sirhindi, who was a staunch adversary of the growing 

Sikh Movement. This Naqshbandi saint and the minister Chandu Shah, 

who had a grudge against the Guru for not accepting the hand of his 

daughter for his son, poisoned the ears of the Emperor. The Emperor’s 

son Khusrau revolted against him and while fleeing came to the Guru. 

The Guru seeing his plight took compassion on him. This incident gave 

an excuse to the Emperor ‘to put an end to the false traffic’ within a few 

months of his accession. He states in his autobiography: “The idea struck 

me several times to make the Guru a convert to Islam, till at last Khusrau 

crossed the Beas and proceeded in the direction of the Guru... No sooner 

did I hear of this than, convinced as I was of the absurdity of the notion, 

I ordered the Guru to be brought into my presence. All his private 

property was confiscated to the State, and he himself placed 

in rigorous confinement.” “The Guru was subjected to 

all sorts of tortures. His blistered body, when taken for a 

bath, disappeared in the cold waters of the river Ravi. According

133 

to Bhai Gurdas, the Guru bore all this agony with great equanimity, during 

the night (previous to his martyrdom) having been deeply absorbed in the 

Name of the Lord, just like a deer engrossed in the sound of the horn (Var 

24, Pauri 23). The Guru had totally resigned himself to the Will of the 

Lord, thus subjecting himself to the discipline enunciated by Guru Nanak 

Dev. The martyrdom of the Guru has been described in Dabistan in the 

following way: “Khusrau having been taken, the king ordered the 

imprisonment of Arjun-muIl, and wanted to extort a large sum of money 

from him. The Guru was helpless; they kept him prisoner in the sandy 

country of Lahore until he died from the heat of the sun and illtreatment. 

This happened in 1606.” 

As a poet: Guru Arjan Dev was the most prolific Guru-poet after 

Guru Nanak Dev, whose religious philosophy he has faithfully recorded 

and elaborated. In Guru Granth Sahib, the compositions of which he compiled 

and edited with great care, diligence and scrutiny, his own contribution is 

the largest. Out of thirty-one Ragas, in the scripture, he composed his 

bani in thirty Ragas, the thirty-first having been added later by Guru Gobind 

Singh in the recension of Damdama. He also composed Swayyas. Besides 

his six Vars, his other significant longer poems are Sukhmani, Bawan Akhri 

and Baramaha. Sukhmani may be called a 

modern Upanishad like the ]apuji of Guru Nanak Dev. Whereas the ]apuji 

of Guru Nanak Dev is aphoristic, the Sukhmani of Guru Arjan Dev is 

expositional. It consists of 24 cantos (ashtapadis). Each canto contains 

one shloka and one ashtapadi (a composition of eight stanzas). According 

to the Guru, peace is obtained by drinking deep the Nectar of the Name 

of the Lord, Who is both Transcendent and Immanent. Before the creation 

of the world, he was in abstract meditation. But when it is His Will. He 

Creates the world of diverse forms and colours. God is Truth, therefore 

His Creation cannot be illusion. It is relatively real, though it is a changing 

phenomenon. Everything that takes birth is prone to die. The soul (Atman) 

is subservient to the Will of God. The Lord is Omnipresent, Ommpotent 

and Omniscient, but the soul has no power of its own; it denves all its 

power by the Grace of God and works in diverse fields. God Himself is 

the Primal Guru. He is Generous and Kind. He is 

Unfathomable, Impenetrable, Inexpressible and All-Pervasive. 

The endlessness of the created cosmos and the variety 

of the forms of species have been mentioned in the tenth 

canto. The eleventh canto relates the limitations of the individual

134 

self. 

The seductive power of the organs of perception and action has 

been clearly brought out in the fifth canto. The ears listen to the calumny 

of others. The eyes are attracted towards the beauty of other women. The 

tongue tastes the prohibited food and also utters vicious words. The feet 

lead towards vicious actions. The purity does not come without truth, 

which is the highest of all the virtues. The truthful person is a real saint. 

His tongue never touches falsehood. His eyes never wander after the 

beauty of other women. His ears never listen to the calumny of others. 

He considers himself lowliest of the lowly. He forsakes all the five vices 

and has full control over his senses. But such persons are very rare in this 

world. We find the mention of such a saint in a first stanza of the ninth 

canto. 

In Sukhmani, humility has been assigned a very high position among 

the virtues, as ego among vices. The twelfth canto employs the figurative 

method for their description. The knower of Brahman (Brahm-Gian) is 

the store-house of all the virtues. A glimpse of this can be found in the 

eighth canto. The love of maya is like the love of the shade of the tree. 

Nothing can be achieved from it. The five vices are lust, anger, greed, 

attachment and ego. The five virtues corresponding to them are self-restraint, 

tolerance, contentment, devotion to duty and modesty. The Pathway to 

God can only be traversed by those, who imbibe virtues and godly qualities. 

This path is the path of Bhakti (love). Sukhmani lays emphasis on devotion 

through love. All formalism and ritualism have been decried. The wisdom 

of the world leads us nowhere. One can obtain release from the net of 

maya and noose of attachment with the help of the Name of the Lord. 

The Name or Word is obtained from the True Guru (Satguru). By the 

remembrance of the Name, the seeker becomes one with the Lord, but 

the meditation on the Name can only be done most effectively in the 

company of the saints (Sadh Sangat). For Bhakti, the Grace of the Lord is 

a pre-requisite. Therefore, it is the duty of the seeker to surrender completely 

before the Guru and the Lord. By the Grace of the Lord, one meets the 

True Guru and by the Grace of the True Guru one meets the Lord. 

Though Guru Arjan Dev did not travel extensively like Guru 

Nanak Dev, we still find the use of several languages and dialects in his 

bani. The reason for this appears to be his intensive study of various 

scriptures and his meetings with the votaries of various

135 

religions and religious sects. The study of Indian scriptures gave him an 

insight into the Sanskrit, Prakrit and Apabhramshas. He discarded the use 

of purely Sanskrit diction and preferred to use Prakrit and Apabhramsha 

formations, while addressing the pundits and Brahmins in Sahaskriti, a 

variation of the folk-language. This was done only for the satisfaction of 

the learned people, who did not want to talk in vernaculars. The Guru 

belonged to the central Punjab (Majha), but his Sikhs had spread far and 

wide. The saints and hermits used to visit him from far off places. Therefore, 

the use of the common religious terminology was natural. The Guru used 

this common diction or the saint-language (Sant-Bhasha) in several of his 

compositions. He also used the standard Punjabi as wen as various Punjabi 

dialects in his hymns. The specialty of Jaitsri ke Var is the use of three 

languages/dialects in one composition. The Pauri is composed in Eastern 

Punjabi and the two shalokas preceding it are composed in Sahaskriti and 

Lahndi respectively. 

InMaru Ki Var, the Guru has made use of Sindhi, the language of 

the southern areas of Punjab. 

Like Guru Nanak Dev, Guru Arjan Dev is against an sorts of 

social divisions and multifarious garbs. All the human beings are the children 

of the same father. The real objective of the precious human life is love 

for the Lord and the attainment of the union with Him through selfsurrender 

and whole-hearted devotion. An the ritualism, formalism and 

symbolism are useless. The vices like lust, anger, greed, attachment, ego, 

calumniation, duality, etc. must be curbed, and instead, the virtues like 

truth, contentment, mercy, righteousness, modesty, tolerance, etc. must 

be imbibed. The whole world can be conquered with the mace of modesty 

and the double-edged sword of humulity. The Name of the Lord is the 

panacea of an ills. “I HAVE BEFRIENDED ALL” was the MOTTO of 

his life.

11 

THE DOCTRINE OF ‘MEERI-PEERI’ 

JAGlIT SINGH 

136 

‘Meeri-Peeri’ as the term itself implies, signifies in essence the blending 

of worldly sovereignity and spiritual sovereignity. It is such a rare 

phenomenon in Indian history, and is so much at variance with the 

current notions surrounding spiritualism vis-a-vis political power, that 

many a scholar fails to entertain the idea that the acquisition of political 

power for even a noble cause can at all be a legitimate spiritual pursuit. 

In fact, some of the scholars are so much pre-occupied with this 

obsession that they have gone to the extent of ignoring or twisting 

valid facts of Sikh history in order to fit them into their interpretation 

of it, corresponding to their presumed approach. 

1. Guru Arjan’s martyrdom not the first or the sole cause 

One such distortion of Sikh history is the hypothesis that the Sikh 

movement was a purely religious movement before it took a political 

turn with the martyrdom of Guru Arjan Dev. This hypothesis is 

factually incorrect. The concepts of ‘Sacha Patshah’ and’Meeri-Peeri’ mean 

virtually the same thing, i.e. the marriage of spiritual authority and 

worldly authority; and the ideal of ‘Sacha-Patshah’ came to be associated 

with Guru Nanak himself 1 and the successor Gurus 2 at a very early 

date. Mohsin Fani writes: ‘Sikhan Guru ha ra Sacha Padshah yani Badshahi-haqiqat 

midanand,. 3 And the ideal of Sacha Patshah did not remain a 

harmless epithet or an airy ideal in the Sikh movement. It was 

institutionalized and had political ramifications. Guru Arjan used to 

hold assemblies which gave them the look of royal Darbars (Court); 4 

and henceforth the Guru was looked upon by his followers as a worldly 

lord and a ruling sovereign. 5 In fact, “The Sikhs had already become 

accustomed to a form of self government within the Empire”. 6 

The significant point is that the ideal of ‘Sacha Patshah’ was not 

set up casually. That it was meant to be a deliberate challenge

137 

to the ruling authority is clear from the manner the Gurus stuck to it 

despite the serious consequences it invited. One of the reasons of 

Guru Arjan’s martyrdom was Jahangir’s charge that the Guru “noised 

himself as a worldly leader. 7 Ram Ral incited Emperor Aurangzeb 

with his allegation that Guru Teg Bahadur boasted of Badshahi-Karamat, 

i.e. kingship and miracle. 8 Khushwaqt Rai states that some of the 

Sikhs, apparently dazzled by the brilliance of the Guru’s darbar, were 

prompted to lay claims to sovereignity. 9 According to Risala-i- 

Nanakshah, Aurangzeb did enquire of Guru Teg Bahadur: Why People 

address you as Sacha Patshah? 10 Instead of trying to assuage the 

Emperor’s suspicions, the Guru replied that whatever it was, it reflected 

the Will of the Almighty, and the faqir was not concerned with the 

fame or defame it brought. 11 Irvine writes: “One of this Guru’s (Guru 

Teg Bahadur’s) crimes, in the Emperor’s eyes, may have been the style 

of address adopted by his disciples, who had begun to call their leader 

Sacha Padshah or the ‘True King’. This title was readily capable of 

two-fold interpretation: it might be applied as the occasion served in a 

spiritual or a literal sense. Its use was extremely likely to provoke the 

mistrust of a ruler even less suspicious by nature than the Alamgir”. 12 

Above all, we have the direct evidence of Jahangir, as cited 

above, that Guru Arjan “noised himself as a worldly leader”, and the 

contemporary evidence of Dabistan that the Sikh polity in his time 

‘became a state within a state’. 13 Toynbee endorses the same fact that 

the predecessors of Guru Hargobind had already transformed the Sikh 

community “from an embryonic church into an embryonic state”. 14 

“There seems to have been an intermediate stage in the evolution of 

the Sikh military machine out of the Sikh religious fraternity which 

had been founded by Nanak about a h.undred years before Hargobind’s 

time. In the last quarter of the sixteenth century of the Christian Era 

the Sikh community seems to have assumed a form which was already 

political though it was not yet warlike”. 15 And we have the glaring fact 

that Guru Arjan blessed Khusarau, the rebellious prince who contested 

the throne against Jahangir, and helped him with money. Not only 

money was given but the Guru also applied Tilak on his forehead as a 

token of blessing him for success in his enterprise of rebellion. This 

was direct political involvement by the Guru’ and the significance of 

all this was not lost upon Jahangir, who wrote: “He (Guru Arjan) 

discussed several matters with him (Khusrau) and made on his

138 

forehead a finger-mark in saffron, which in terms of Hindus is called 

Qashqa and is considered propitious”. 16 A European contemporary of 

this event draws the same inference: “The Guru congratulated him 

(Khusrau) for assuming sovereignty and applied three marks on his 

forehead. Although the Guru was a heathen, and the prince a 

Mussalman, yet he was glad in putting on the prince’s forehead that pagan 

sign as a mark of good success in his enterprise ...” 17 And this was one of 

the charges which Jahangir levelled against Guru Arjan. It was not Guru 

Arjan’s martydom which gave a political turn to the Sikh movement; rather 

it was the political aspect of the movement which contributed to his 

martyrdom. 

2. The Second Major Misinterpretation 

Another major misinterpretation being projected by some scholars is 

that Guru Hargobind, by taking up arms, deviated from the path of ‘Nam 

or Nam Marg’ followed by the earlier Gurus. Deviation from which view 

of Nam? 

‘Nam’ is essentially an internal spiritual experience which cannot be 

communicated to others through words. “Says Kabir, a dumb person, on 

tasting sweet, is unable to convey his experience to others” . 18 Hence, this 

experience can be visualized intellectually, if at all, only inadequately. 

Secondly, whereas there is a clear demarcation between religions which 

reject the world totally and which do not, there are; variations, about the 

religious goals and the associated practical conduct, within the orbit of 

what Max Weber calls ‘inner-wordly asceticism’. “As we have already stated 

at a number of points, the specific character of the certification of salvation 

and of the associated practical conduct is completely different in religions 

which differently represent the character of the promised salvation, the 

promise of which ensures blessedness” . 19 

To come to the specific case of Nam Marg, besides the Sikh Gurus, 

Nam Dev, Kabir, Ravi Das, Tirlochan, Sadna and some of the other Radical 

Bhaktas claim in their hymns to be votaries of Nam, and they are believed 

by their followers to have experienced Nam in their own lives. But, there 

is a clear difference between the approaches of the Sikh Gurus, on the 

one hand, and those of the’ Bhaktas named above, on the other, towards 

the vital issues of Ahimsa and the socio-religious status of women. 20 Again, 

within the circle of these Radical Bhaktas itself, none other condemns 

the caste so unequivocally as do Nam Dev and Kabir. In other words,

139 

these reputed standard-beares of Bhakti Marg react differently towards 

issues which are socially vital and have far-reaching historical consequences. 

Hence, there is no common criterion for knowing, much less for asserting, 

what is compatible and what is not compatible with the experience of 

Nam in its social and historical manifestations, excepting, perhaps, that 

these votaries of Nam supported in broad outline humanitarian values 

and goals. Guru Hargobind explained to the Maharashtrian saint Ram 

Das that he was internally an ‘ascetic’. 21 Yet, some scholars presume to 

know better than him that the taking up of arms, even for a noble cause, 

was not accordant with Nam Marg. Guru Nanak condemned the rulers 

and the administration of his times for their oppression of the ryot, and 

was pained to see the suffering caused by Babar’s invasion. The Sikh 

Panth became virtually ‘a state within a state’, atleast by Guru Arjan’s 

time. And Guru Hargobind took up arms to defend that ‘embryonic state’. 

Where do such scholars draw the line as to what is in harmony withNam 

Marg and what is not? And on what basis? Max Weber’s thesis, from which 

we will give here some excerpts, might be of help in clarifying some of 

these issues. 

3. Max Weber’s thesis 

(a) ‘World-rejecting asceticism’ and ‘inner-worldly asceticism’: “Concentration 

upon the actual pursuit of salvation may entail a formal withdrawal from 

the “world”, from social and psychological ties with the family, from the 

possession of worldly goods, and from political, economic, artistic and 

erotic activities, in short from all creaturely interests. One with such an 

attitude may regard any participation in these affairs as an acceptance of 

the world, leading to alienation from God. This is “world rejecting 

asceticism” (Waltablehnede Askese). 

On the other hand, “‘the unique concentration of human behaviour 

on activities leading to salvation may require the participation within the 

world (or more precisely: within the institutions of the world but in 

opposition to them) of the religious. individual’s idiosyncratically sacred 

religious mood and his qualifications as the elect instrument of God. This 

is “inner-worldly asceticism” (inner-weltliche Askese). In this case the world 

is presented to the religious virtuoso as his responsibility. 

He may have the obligation to transform the world in accordance 

with his ascetic ideals, in which case the ascetic will become a rational 

reformer or revolutionary on the basis of a theory of natural

140 

rights.” 22 

(b) As a tool of God “Salvation may be viewed as the distinctive gift of 

active ethical behaviour performed in the awareness that God directs this 

behaviour, i.e., that the actor is an instrument of God. We shall designate 

this type of attitude toward salvation, which is characterized by a 

methodical procedure for achievingreligious salvation, as “ascetic”. This 

designation is for our purpose here, and we do not in any way deny this 

term may be and has been used in another and wider sense”. 23 

“Nevertheless, the world as a creation of God, who comes to 

expression in it despite its creatureliness, provides the only medium through 

which one’s unique religious charishma may prove itself by means of 

rational ethical conduct, so that one may become and remain certain of 

one’s own state of grace:’ 

“Hence, as the field provided for this active certification, the order of 

the world in which the (inner-worldly) ascetic is situated becomes for him 

a vocation which he must fulfil rationally”. 24 

“In contrast to asceticism, contemplation is primarily the quest to 

achieve rest in God and in him alone. It entails inactivity, and in its most 

consistent form it entails the cessation of thought, the nemisis of everything 

that in any way reminds one of the world, and of course the absolute 

minimization of all outer and inner activity” .24A 

“For the (inner-worldly) ascetic too, the perception of the divine 

through emotion and intellect is of central importance, only in his case it 

is of a “motor” type, so to speak. the ascetic’s assurance of grace is achieved 

when he is conscious that he has succeeded in becoming a tool of his 

God, through rationalized ethical action completely oriented to God. But 

for the contemplative mystic, who neither desires to be the God’s 

“instrument”, but desires only to become the God’s “vessel”, the ascetic’s 

ethical struggle, whether of a positive or a negative type, appears to be a 

perpetual externalization of the divine in the direction of some peripheral 

function. For this reason, ancient Buddhism recommended inaction as 

the precondition for the maintenance of the state of grace, and in any 

case Buddhism enjoined the avoidance of every type of rational, purposive 

activity, which it regarded as the most dangerous form of secularization. 

On the other hand, the contemplation of the mystic appears to the (innerworldly) 

mystic as indolent, religiously sterile, and ascetically reprehensible 

self-indulgence - a wallowing in self-created

141 

emotions prompted by the deification of the creaturely” 25 

“For the Buddhist monk, agriculture is the most reprehensible of all 

occupations …….Yet the alms he collects consist principally of 

agricultural products” 26 

In any case, the typical mystic is never a man of conspicuous social 

activity, nor is he at all prone to accomplish any rational transformation 

of the mundane order on the basis of a methodical pattern of life directed 

toward external success” . 27 

(c) Social and Historical Implications “The decisive historical difference 

between the predominantly oriental and Asiatic types of salvation religions 

and those found primarily in the accident is that the former usually culminate 

in contemplation and the latter in (inner-worldly) asceticism” 28 

“Moreover, only in the accident was the additional step taken - by 

ascetic Protestantism - of translating rational asceticism into the life of 

world. The inner-worldly order of dervishes in Islam cultivated a planned 

procedure for achieving salvation, but this procedure, for all its variations, 

was oriented ultimately to the’ mystical quest for salvation of the Sufis... 

The asceticism of the dervishes is not, like that of (inner-worldly) ascetic 

Protestants, a religious ethic of vocation, for the religious actions of the 

dervishes have very little relationships to their secular occupations, and 

in their scheme secular vocations have at best a purely external relationship 

to the planned procedure of salvation.” 29 

“But an unbroken unity integrating in systematic fashion an ethic of 

vocation in the world with assurance of religious salvation was the unique 

creation of ascetic Protestantism alone. Furthermore, only in the Protestant 

ethic of vocation does the world, despite all its creaturely imperfections, 

possess unique and religious significance as the object through which one 

fulfils his duties by rational behaviour according to the will of an absolutely 

transcendental God. When success crowns rational, sober purposive 

behaviour of the sort not oriented exclusively to worldly acquisition, 

such success is construed as a sign that God’s blessing rests upon such 

behaviour. This inner-worldly asceticism had a number of distinctive 

consequences not found in any other religion. This religion demanded of 

the believer, not celibacy, as in the case of the monk, but the avoidance 

of all erotic pleasure; not poverty, but the elimination of all idle and 

exploitive enjoyment of unearned wealth and income, and the avoidance 

of all feudalistic, sensuous ostentation of wealth; not the ascetic deathin-life 

of the

142 

cloister, but an alert, rationally controlled patterning of life, and the 

avoidance of all surrender to the beauty of the world, to art, or to one’s 

own moods and emotions. The clear and uniform goal of this asceticism 

was the discipiliningand methodical organization of the whole pattern of 

life. Its typical representative was the “man of vocation”, and its unique 

result was the rational organization and institutionalization of social 

relationships.” 30 

“To Max Weber the examplar among such religious movements that 

‘change the world’ was Puritan... none in his opinion had influenced in 

such a revolutionary manner as had Puritanical religiousity.’ 31 

4. The Sikh View of ‘Nam, 32 

We cannot presume to delineate ‘Nam’ in its entirity. “Nam sustains 

the whole animal life” (‘’Nam ke dhare sagle jant”);... ‘’Nam sustains the 

entire creation” (‘’Nam ke dhare saga I akar”). 33 We restrict ourselves here, 

for a particular purpose, to only those aspects of Nam, which are related 

to the main points covered by the excerpts given in the earlier section, and 

which are amply vouchsafed by the hymns of the Gurus and their lifeaccounts. 

(a) Not World-rejecting 34 For the Gurus, the world is true and not a 

thing to be rejected or to be escaped from. 

“True are thy worlds and thy universes, 

true are the forms Thou createst.’. 35 

“True is He; True is His creation. ,, 36 

“Deride not the world, as it is the creation of God.’ 37 

The Gurus have explicitly condemned all ascetic or escapist practices. 

“One reaches not Truth by remaining motionless like trees and stones, 

nor by being sawn alive.’ 38 “yogi, you are sitting in a trance, but you 

discriminate and have a sense of duality. You beg from door to door, are 

you not ashamed of it?, 39 “Jainic asceticism, or even if the body were cut 

into bits, would not efface the dirt of ego.” 40 

All the Sikh Gurus, excepting the eighth, who passed away at an early 

age, were married house-holders, and the third Guru issued an injunction 

that no recluse or ascetic could be a Sikh. 41 

(b) As a Tool of God ‘To abide by God’s Will’ is the summum bonum 

of Sikhism, as this is the ultimate goal to which all spiritual or religious 

aspirations and strivings must converge. Mukti and heaven (in the 

traditional sense) is not the Sikh ideal. “One who is fond of seeing God, 

what has he to do with Mukti or heaven? (Dar dainshan ka pritam hove 

mukat baikunthe kare kia).,, 42 After negating

143 

certain current paths followed for attaining salvation, Guru Nanak clinches 

the issue, by first posing the question: “How to become True, and how to 

tear the veil of falsehood?”; and then by answering it: “By abiding by 

(God’s) Will.’. 43 In fact, ‘Moving by God’s Will’ is so central to Sikhism 

that this theme is emphasized again and again in Guru Granth Sahib. 

Secondly, no methodology has in it an in-built compulsive force to achieve 

salvation in its own right. It all depends on God’s Grace. The very opening 

line of Guru Granth Sahib, enumerating the attributes of God, ends with 

the stipulation that He is attained through ‘Gur-parsad’ (Le. Guru’s or 

God’s Grace). Guru Arjan, in one of his hymns, gives a long list of methods 

for God-realization (including ascetic practices of yoga) tried and found 

wanting: “I tried many methods of meeting God and failed. Frustrated, I 

surrendered myself to God and begged to be granted enlightenment” 44 

“Nam, the immaculate, is unfathomable, how can it be known? Nam is 

within us, how to get to it The perfect Guru awakens your heart to the 

vision of God. It is by the Grace of God that one meets Guru.’, 45 "By His 

Gracealone is He ever remembered (Simrya Jui).” And to become a tool of 

God’ is the way to e arn God’s Grace and ‘Nam’. “Service in the world 

leads to approval in the Court of God.,, 46 “He who serves God gets bliss 

and is absorbed in Nam, without straining himself (sehja).” 47 

The Sikh Gurus conceive of God as a God of Will, who is creative 

and whose Will is operative in the world with a direction and purpose. For 

man, therefore, the ideal is to carry out His Will by doing creative activity 

in the universe as God’s instrument. The ideal is not blissful union as an 

end in itself, but union with a view to knowing His Will and carrying it 

out. Accordingly, to be linked to Nam means ‘to become God’s instrument’ 

and to share the responsibility of a creative and virtuous development in 

the world.’ 48 “May I have millions of hands to serve Thee. Service is the 

way to cross the hurdles of life.’. 49 “Serve God every moment and relax 

not.” 50 

Janam-sakhis (life-accounts of Guru Nanak) record that Guru 

Nanak received a two-fold prophetic mandate from God at the moment 

of his enlightenment to propagate Nam (Nam japaona) and to establish a 

new Panth. 51 In other words, in Guru Nanak’s mission, Nam Marg was 

inextricably joined to sharing responsibilty of a creative and virtuous 

development in the world. Again, when Guru Nanak found Guru Angad 

wholly absorbed in meditation,

144 

he (Guru Nanak) reminded the latter to become engaged in carrying out 

the mission of organising the Panth., which he had been entrusted with. 52 

This does not mean pitting Nam Marg (or spiritual bliss) versus god-oriented 

worldly responsibility, or excluding one at the cost of the other. What it 

means is combining the two for the purpose of transforming the world in 

accordance with God’s purpose. 

(c) Social and Historical Implications Without going into all the social 

and historical developments of the Sikh movement, we need only to point 

to two of these here. H,H. Rislay in his book, The People of India, likens, 

though in an exaggerated, graphic style, the breaking of caste-barriers to 

the overcoming of the gravitational force. Of all the votaries of the 

Bhakti Marg, only the Sikh movement succeeded in establishing the 

egalitarian Sikh Panth as a separate, distinct entity outside the caste society 

by overcoming such a tough negative force. This indicates the seriousness 

and tenacity of purpose for bringing about social equality generated by 

the distinctive Sikh view of Nam Marg. 

Another indication is that ‘the lowest of low in Indian estimation’ 

shared political power under Banda, 53 and none higher than the Jats (on 

the border-line of Vaisyas and Sudras). Carpenters (Sudras), and Kalals 

(lower than the Sudra) shared political power in the Missal period. 54 This 

compares favourably even with most of the modem revolutions, for 

Brinton writes: “None of these (English, American and French) revolutions 

quite substituted a brand-new ruling class for the old one”atleast not unless 

one thinks of class without bothering about the human beings, who make 

up the class;..” 55 Of course, other votaries of Bhakti Marg in India could 

not even conceive of bringing about such a politicalproletarien revolution 

as they were wedded to the doctrine of Ahimsa. 

(d) A paralled Development One should not expect an exact 

parallelism between social and historical developments, especially between 

those separated by considerable time or space. What we want to emphasize, 

by putting the Sikh view of Nam in juxta position with the excerpts from 

Max Weber’s thesis given in the previous section, is that ‘to become God’s 

instrument in carrying out His Will and purpose in this World’ is a distinct 

religious ideal as well as a means of securing spiritual bliss or salvation. 

This ideal was shared by Protestant Christianity and Sikhism, and this led, 

in both cases, to far-reaching social and historical developments. However, 

there was one vital difference. Pacifism, non-violence

145 

or Ahimsa came to be, somehow, integrally asociated with Christianity; 

and, despite the Calvinist attempts to correct this one-sided tilt, it inhibited 

the complete fulfilment of the revolutionary potential of Christianity. 

Neither the Sikh doctrine, nor the movement inspired by it, had any such 

inhibitions. 

5. The Use of Force 

It is not to our purpose to enter into a discussion of theological and ethical 

issues in their heoretical abstractions, for there can be no end to hairsplitting. 

What is relevant for us is the stand of Sikhism on the issue of 

Ahimsa, as illustrated by the hymns of the Gurus and their lives. 

“...prophetic revealation involves, for both the prophet and for 

his followers... a unified view of the world derived from a consciously 

integrated and meaningful attitude towards life. To the prophet, both the 

life of man and the world, both social and cosmic events, have a certain 

systematic and coherent meaning. To this meaning the conduct of mankind 

must be oriented if it is to bring salvation, for only in relation to this 

meaning does life obtain a unified and significant pattern 

Moreover, it always contains the important religious conception of the 

world as a cosmos which is challenged to produce somehow a “meaningful”, 

ordered totality, the particular manifestations of which are to be measured 

and evaluate according to this requirement.” 56 

Guru Nanak’s view about Ahimsa, as expressed in a long hymn, 57 can 

be appreciated in the perspective of this concept of the world as a 

meaningful totality. The Guru emphasizes in this hymn that the whole life 

process has a common source. No animal life is possible without the use 

of flesh in one form or the other. He points out the fallacy of those who 

make a fetish of the question of eating meat; but have no scruples in 

‘devouring’ (exploiting) men. all distinctions between non-vegetarian foods 

being impure and the vegetarian being pure are arbitrary, because the source 

of life is the same elements. He chides the Pandit and the Sanyasis for 

their false notions. Guru Nanak himself cooked meat at Kurukshetra, 58 

and meat was served in the Langer of Guru Angad and his successor 

Gurus. 59 

The prohibition against -non-vegetarian diet arose as a corollary of 

the doctrine of Ahimsa, which had two implications. First, the use of 

non-vegetarian diet or the use of force, was supposed to militate against 

the spiritual progress of a religious person. Secondly, it prohibited the 

person seeking Moksha from

146 

entering the sodo-political field for the objective of undoing social, political 

or economic aggression, if necessary by the use of force. Guru Nanak’s 

hymns, and the partaking of meat by the Gurus, completely repudiate the 

doctrine of Ahimsa and its socio-political implications. Because, “The 

universal mood of pity, extending to all creatures, cannotbe the carrier of 

any rational behaviour and in fact leads away from it.’. 60 To stick to Ahimsa 

at all costs would have amounted to sacrificing the ‘meaningful, ordered 

totality’ of life at the alter of an arbitrarily formulated norm. 

6. The Doctrine of Meeri-Peeri 

Meeri and Peeri are both essential and are entwined components of 

this doctrine. 

(a) Why Meeri is an essential component. In the first place: “Every religiously 

grounded unworldly love and indeed every ethical religion must, in similar 

measure and for similar reasons, experience tensions with the sphere of 

political behaviour. This tension appears as soon as religion has progressed 

to anything like a status of equality with the sphere of political 

associations.’, 61 In other words, there is inherent conflict, at all levels, 

between ethical religions and political authority based on social, political, 

or economic stratification. The degree to which this conflict surfaces, or 

flares up, would depend upon the extent to which an ethical religion 

challenges a political status quo, or upon the measure by which the political 

authority compromises or yields to such a challenge. 

Secondly, when a movement motivated by ethical religion seeks a 

revolutionary change in any of the systems of stratification, it does not 

limit itself to piecemeal reconstruction of an existing system. Entrenched 

systems of stratification might be amenable to reform, but would not 

surrender without an armed struggle when their very existence is at stake. 

And, as all systems get entrenched, in the last analysis, on the basis of 

political and military sanctions, religious and ethical movements seeking 

radical changes in the status quo, as the Sikh movement did, have to be 

political and militant. The political dimension of a revolution “figures 

both with respect to goals and to means. The goal of a revolution in fact 

may be a new political order, while political methods are unavoidable no 

matter what the stakes of revolution may be. This double importance of 

political power gives it some claim to be considered the most important 

factor, though not the exclusive factor involved.” 62 “Subordinate 

relationships universally and for ever

147 

pose a political problem. the issue of subordination is more pervasive 

than that of exploitation, to which Marx tried to limit it” 63 “The 

revolutionary process itself is in the first instance a struggle for political 

power. And whatever may be the deeper driving forces of a revolution, 

the struggle for the state always appears as the immediate content; indeed 

to such an extent that the transformation of the social order often appears 

not as the goal of the revolution, but simply as means used by 

revolutionaries to conquer or to exercise power.” 64 “Finally, our definition 

of revolution considers recourse to violence as essential rather than 

accidental to it. The magnitude and the abruptness of change involved in 

revolution always produces violence in some form.” 65 

Not only that. Even a radical social change in the status quo cannot 

be brought about, or maintained, without a corresponding political setup. 

One of the important factors, why the votaries of the Bhakti Marg did 

not institutionalize their anti-caste ideology into a separate social identity 

outside the caste society, could be that they did not attempt to create a 

corresponding political order: Within the Sikh movement itself, it was 

because of political power that the Jats of the Sikh tract came to regard 

themselves as superior to the Rajputs’ 66 en masse and permanently. The 

carpenters (Sudras) could raise their social status and transform themselves 

into Ramgarhias, and Kalals (lower than the Sudras) could become 

Ahluwalias, because they shared political power in the Missals.And the 

Rangretas, though given equal status in the Oal Khalsa, 67 could not retain 

it because they missed the bus in the race of acquiring political power in 

the Missal period. 

(b) ‘Peeri’ : ‘ Peeri’ is not merely an essential component of ‘Meeri- 

Peeri’, it is the fulcrum around which ‘Meeri’ must revolve.Because, in 

the Gurus’ concept of ‘Meeri-Peeri’, the exercize of Political power was 

valid only so long it was employed in transformmg the world in accordance 

with God’s purpose. It ceased to be valid the moment it was used merely 

for its secular enjoyment by any agency, whether Khalsa or any other. The 

Akal takhat was meant not to be the seat of worldly political power, it 

was the throne of God only. Guru Hargobind, addressing his army on to 

eve of a battle, said: “Brother Sikhs, this contest is not for empire, for 

wealth, or for land. It is in reality a war for religion’ 68 The creationof the 

Khalsa was just an extension of the doctrine of Meeri-Peeri”. Whereas 

Guru Gobind Singh had declared that he did not aspire for raj (political 

authority) for his own person, 69

148 

it was he who blessed the downtrodden Jats and Sudras) to attain raj at a 

time when his sons were alive. 70 ‘The Khalsa was God’s own, and its 

achievements were God’s achievements’ (‘Wahiguru jee ka Khalsa, 

Wahiguru ji kee fateh’). In the contemporary work of Sri Guru Sobha, it is 

made clear that “The Khalsa was created to destroy the evil-doer and to 

remove distress.” 71 

What is more important for consideration here is that, in the same 

work, Nam is made an integral part of the Khalsa discipline. “One should 

participate in Sangat (religious congregation) and sing God’s praise; the 

Khalsa prays for the gift of Nam. 72 Similarly, the obligation of the Khalsa 

to bear arms to serve God’ s cause, and the obligation to link oneself to 

Nam, are both emphasized, in the Tankhahnama of Bhai Nand Lal (which 

contains the often-cited line “Raj Karega Khalsa”, Le. “The Khalsa shall 

rule”), side by side in the same stanza. 

“Khalsa is one who overcomes the five evils; 

....... 

Khalsa is one who gives up ego; 

....... 

Khalsa is one who does not discriminate; 

. .. . .. . 

Khalsa is one who protects the poor; 

....... 

Khalsa is one who does Nam simran; Khalsa is 

one who fights the evil-doer; 

....... 

Khalsa is one who links himself to ‘Nam’; 

....... 

Khalsa is one who destroys the evil-doer” 73 

In other words, the obligations to bear arms and to link with ‘Nam’ 

were considered by the Khalsa to be complementary and not mutually 

exclusive. In fact, the Sikh doctrine regards ‘Haumen’ (ego) to be the rootcause 

of all evils, discriminations, stratifications, domination, agression, 

etc; and’ the remedy it suggests is to substitute self-centredness by Godconsciousness, 

which can be done only through the realization of ‘Nam’ 

by the Grace of God. 74 

7. Conclusion 

There is no dichotomy either in the Sikh doctrine or in the 

movement.inspired by it during the Guru period. Sikhism is not wedded 

to the doctrine or the norms of Ahinsa, as other Bhagats in

149 

India were. The Sikh view of Nam embraces the totality of life, and it 

inspires participation in God-oriented worldly activity with a view to 

creating a “meaningful, ordered totality” in the world. Hence, the very 

premises of judging and interpreting the Sikh doctrine and the Sikh 

movement, from a narrow view or the norms of Ahinsa, are not valid; 

because, otherwise, it would amount to weighing the Sikh view of Nam 

and the movement it inspired in the scale of non-Sikh ideals and values. 

REFERENCES 

1 Varan Bhai Gurdas, Var 24, Pauri iii 

2 Macauliffe, Max Arthur: The Sikh Religion, Vol in, p.76 

3 Dabistan 

4 M. Gregor, W.L.: The History of the Sikhs, Vol. 1, p.54; Latif, Syed Mohammad: 

History of the Punjab, p.253 

5 Latif, p.253 

6 Dabistan; Gokai Chand Narang; Transformation of Sikhism, p.45 

7 Tuzuk-e-Jahangiri, Trans. by Alexander Rogers, p.72 

8 Bute Shah: Tawarikh-i-Panjab; Gurbax Singh, Punjab History conference, Feb. 1976, 

(Proceedings), p.70 pp.77-78 

10 Ibid., p.75 

11 Ibid. 

12 Irvine, William: Later Mughals, p.79 

13 Cited by Gokal Chand Narang: p.45 

14 Toynbee, A.J., A Study of History, V, p.665 

15 Ibid. 

16 Tuzuk-e, Jahangiri, Cited by Hari Ram Gupta: History of the Sikh Gurus, p.100 

17 Early European Accounts of the Sikhs, edited Ganda Singh, p.184 

18 Guru Granth Sahib, p.334 

19 Max Weber: The Sociology of Religion, p.164 

20 Daijeet Singh: The Sikh Ideology, Singh Brothers, Bazar Mai Sawan, Amritsar: pp.122, 

123, 127, 128, 132-135,141-143 

21 Dabistan 


23 Ibid., p.l64. As this is likely to cause confusion, we are adding within brackets, the word 

“inner-worldly” to the term “asceticism” used by Weber in his restricted sense, in order 

to distinguish it from world-rejecting or

contemplative asceticism 

24 Ibid., p.167 

24a Ibid., p.169 

25 Ibid., p.171 

26 Ibid.,p.I72 

27 Ibid., p.176 

28 Ibid., p.I77 

29 Ibid., p.182 

30 Ibid., p.182-83 

31 Mommsen (p.311) cited by S.N. Eisenstadt: Sociology of Religion, edited by 

Roland Robertson, p.305 

32 Daljeet Singh: Sikhism, pp.186-87; The Doctrine of Nam, Journal of Sikh Studies, 

August, 1975 


34 DaIjeet Singh: Sikhism, Chapter 15 


36 Ibid., p.294 

37 Ibid., p.611 

38 Ibid., p.952 

39 Ibid., p.886 

40 Ibid., p.265 

41 DaIjeet Singh: Sikhism, p.270 


43 Ibid., p.1. 

44 Ibid., pp.641-642 

45 Ibid., p.1242 

46 Ibid., p.26 

47 Ibid., p.l1 

48 Daljeet Singh: Sikhism, pp.215-216 


50 Ibid., p.77 

51 lanam-Sakhi Meharban wali, edited by Kirpal Singh, p.89 

52 Sarup Das Bhalla: Mehma Parkash, Part One, p.326 

53 Irvine: J. A.S.B., Vol. 63 (1894), p.124 

54 Prinsep, Henry T.:Origin of the Sikh Power in the Punjab, p.24 

55 Brinton, Crane: The Anatomy of Revolution, p.270 

56 Max Weber: The Sociology of Religion, pp.58-59 

57 Guru Granth Sahib, trans. by Gopal Singh, pp.1230-1231 

58 Janam-Sakhi, Balewali, edited by Surinder Singh Kohli, p.277 

150

59 Mehma Parkash, ii, pp.49,64,609 


61 Ibid., p.223 

62 Hagopian, M.N.,: The Phenomenon of Revolution, p.3 

63 Bernard de jouvenal, cited by Jacques Ellul, B.: Autopsy of Revolution, p.l08 

64 Borkenon, F.: Sociological Review, 29 (1932), p.4165 Hagopian, MN.; 

Phenomenon of Revolution, p.3 

66 Ibbetson, Sir Denzil: Punjab Castes, Sec. 437 

67 The Sikh Revolution, p.205; Bhangu Rattan Singh, Prachin Panth Parkash, pp.216, 

469 

68 Macauliffe, Vo1.iv, p.255 

69 Koer Singh: Gurbilas Patshahi Das, p.99 

70 Ibid., pp.131, 139 

71 Sri Gur Sobha, edited by Ganda Singh, p.21 

72 Ibid., p.25 

73 Tankhahnama of Bhai Nand Lal; Rehtname, compiled by Piara Singh Padam, p.59 

74 Daljeet Singh: Sikhism, Chapters 16, 17 

151

12 

CREATION OF THE KHALSA : A NON-SIKH INDIAN 

LITERARY PERSPECTIVE 

HIMADRI BANERJEE 

152 

The history of the birth of the Khalsa has long been 

illuminating the Sikh creative mind over the centuries. Even the Sikh 

studies of the recent times do not fail to highlight this episode. Thus 

one modem scholar has portrayed this occassion as the ‘central event’ 

of Sikh history, because it stimulated ‘a revolutionary change’ in the 

minds of the gurus’ followers. Again it is credited with ‘sealing’ the 

borders of Punjab to invaders and giving the Sikhs’ sovereignty’ over 

the whole province. The Khalsa, according to another leading exponent 

of the Panthic philosophy of the post-independence decades, was 

committed to the ‘task of founding a society’ for maintaining ‘the 

permanent and unalterable Dharma’ ‘affecting all aspects of human 

life’ and ‘totalitarian in its effects. 1 

These seminal observations underlining the creation of the 

Khalsa are reported to have been questioned by some notable, 

dissenters’ in India and abroad. 2 Again these have generated scholarly 

debates and introduced an additional dimension to Sikh studies of 

our times. Generally speaking, we are accustomed to listening to what 

is being debated amongst the leading experts in English. But we are 

not perhaps aware of how the twentieth century non-Sikh Indian mind 

has often tried to appreciate the Tenth Guru’s creation of the Khalsa. 

A study of this literary harvest may provide a glimpse of the attitude 

of the non-Sikh authors of the Indian sub-continent towards the Panth. 

For the convenience of our present discussion, we may refer 

to three monographs - one each written in Bengali, Hindi and Oriya - 

dealing with the life and message of Guru Gobind Singh, especially 

the fighting role of his Khalsa in the history of the Sikh

153 

resistance movement against the Mughals. Incidentally, these monographs 

were brought out in the first half of the present century, when India’s 

fight for national liberation was generating a new sense of self-consciousness 

and stimulated a search for the past heroic tradition of the sub-continent. 

These authors were no less affected by certain communal considerations 

of the period. Thus politics religion and literature were brought closer on 

a common platform centering around the story of creation of ‘the Khalsa 

on the day of the Baisakhiin 1699. 

II 

Tinkari Banerjee’s (b. 1856) Guru Gobinda Singha seems to be one of 

the pioneering studies on the life of the Tenth Guru undertaken in any 

modem Indian language outside Punjab. 3 Banerjee was born and brought 

up in an orthodox Hindu Brahmin family and it had a deep imprint on his 

literarary craft. The monograph was an incomplete one when it was first 

brought out in 1896. It was later on enlarged, revised and published in its 

present form in 1918. Based mainly on the Suraj Prakash, it was perhaps 

the most detailed biography of the Guru in Bengali and its author 

was not altogether unmindful of the works of the British authorties like 

Ma1colm, Cunningham and Cave Brown. The biographer however regarded 

the Suraj Prakash as the most reliable source of information in this regard 

and generally depended on Bhai Santokh Singh’s view whenever there 

was any difference of opinion among the authorities. 

Banerjee claimed to have drafted the biography of the Guru in 

accordance with the Sikh religious belief and ethical tradition. A historian 

of the Sikhs, according to him, should first sincerely try to appreciate the 

basic tenets of the Panth before undertaking any task of reconstructing 

its religious institutions and historical tradition. With this end in view, he 

seems to have cultivated a closer relationship with the Bhais of the 

Barabazar Gu rdwara, Calcutta, who, on their turn helped him in 

communicating the significance of the writings of Bhai Santokh Singh., 

The biographer devoted a chapter (Chapter XVI) entitled the Pahul 

Sanskar’ on the birth of the Khalsa. He had no doubt that the Khalsa’s 

formal induction to militarism had a significance of Its own and this 

therefore requires more than his passing attention. He quoted the Guru’s 

injunction that every Sikh should always bear arms and fight whenever he 

would be challenged by his enemy. While appreciating the growing demand 

for militarism in

154 

the Panth, the biographer also reterred to the dignity involved in it and as 

a historian tried to find out its answer from the political sufferings and 

military harrasment encountered by the Sikhs in their daily life in Punjab. 

He went back to the martyrdom of the Ninth Guru and portrayed how 

his son and successor, Gobind Rai, had to fight out the grave situation 

arising out of it. The author emphasized that the young Guru had to 

negotiate the situation when his Sikhs were steadily encircled by their 

enemy. It put an immensse pressure on the resources of the Panth. The 

Guru’s call to arms, according to him, was therefore an answer to the twin 

objective, namely, the protection of life and religion of the Sikhs within 

the political framework of Punjab. Banerjee tried to provide an answer to 

Guru’s militarism in a historical setting which we generally miss in 

Rabindranath Tagore’s early twentieth century writing on the Sikhs. Unlike 

Sir Jadunath Sarkar, Banerjee also tried to appreciate this issue from the 

perspective of a Sikh. 4 

Another significant point that had received the serious attention 

of Banerjee in his account of the birth of Khalsa is the relationship between 

the Guru and his Sikhs. While denying any place to the Massands, Minas, 

Dhirmalis, Ramrais, Kurimars and Narimars in his vision of the Khalsa, 

his disciples were particularly instructed not to have any truck with them. 

It necessitated a redefinition of his Sikhs. Banerjee thus argued that Sikhs 

should not only be brave, but they should always try to emulate the tradition 

of Guru Angad when he had been serving Guru Nanak as one of his 

disciples. Of all his disciples, Banerjeecontinues, Guru Angad (Lehna) 

alone passed the different ordeals with all grace. Deep veneration, 

unquestioned surrender, absolute faith and universal readiness to serve 

the Guru even at the risk of one’s life, would be some of the essential 

distinguishing marks of a true Sikh. The Panch Piyaras with their five Ks 

were destined to perpetuate the tradition. 

This perception of the Guru’s Sikhs in the scheme of the Khalsa 

coupled with the total elimination of the dissenting sects, Banerjee sought 

to project as the ideal of surrender and service of the days of Guru Nanak. 

Thus the Guru’s biographer drew our attention not only to a code of 

conduct that underlines that personal and organisational aspects of the 

life of a Sikh, but confirmed the presence of an uninterrupted historical 

tradition since the middle of the fifteenth century. It would be perhaps no 

exaggeration to point out that Banerjee’s commitment to

155 

Biahmanical ethos did not here affect his appreciation of some of the 

rahit as enshrined in the lives of the Gurus and perpetuated by his disciples. 

But Banerjee’s craftmanship also bore a few unmistakable marks of his 

deep Sanatani commitment and he made no secret of it. Thus, his Guru 

Gobind Singh was no doubt a heavenly commissioned personality on 

earth; he was fighting for the deliverance of the Hindus against the Mughal 

tyranny. Againthe Sikh messiah agreed to baptise his Sikhs only after he 

had received the blessings of Goddess Bhabani. This is symbolised by the 

gift of her sword for the success of his earthly mission. The biographer 

felt no hesitation in recording that one of the five Ks was the gift of 

mythical Hanuman to the Khalsa. Besides, his pronounced Hindu bias 

clouded his assessment of some of the major issues denounced by the 

Guru at the time of the creation of the Khalsa. The biographer’s 

unequivocal assertion in the constructive role of Hindu caste system as 

well as his insistence on the continuance of worship of Hindu idols in the 

future scheme of work of the Khalsa underlined his sincere attempt to 

rehabilitate these’ two Brahmanical religious ingredients within his vision 

of the Khalsa. This sounds like an echo of the views of the contemporary 

Punjab Hindu Sabha leaders who were universally opposed to granting 

any separate communal status and Identity of the Sikhs from that of the 

Hindus. His depiction of the birth of the Khalsa was a confused patchwork 

of a few contradictory Hindu-Sikh religious beliefs and institutions and 

therefore suffers from an inherent dichotomy and contradiction. 

Incidentally, they also constitute some of the distinguishing marks of the 

leading non-Sikh authors of his generation writing on the Panth. 

III 

Another important biografhical contribution came from the pen 

of Beni Prasad (1897-1945). 5 A scion of a Lower middle class Vaishya 

Jain family of Agra, Prasad recounts trye story of the birth of the Khalsa 

in his Guru Gobind Singh 6 in Hindi. It was published In the Manoranjan 

Granthamala series of the Nagri Pracharani Sabha, Benaras. Prior to it, he 

had briefly dealt with this problem In the Saraswati (Allahabad) at the 

threshold of the present century (October 1907). 7 Prasad was associated 

with the different English and Punjabi sources though he did not refer to 

them even in the footnotes of the biography of the Tenth Guru, perhaps 

anticipating the pattern of readership.

156 

Generally speaking, he narrated the circumstances leading to the 

creation of the Khalsa in a popular readable style so that it could evoke a 

note of enthusiasm in the mind of his readers. He deliberately sought to 

highlight the element of drama in the biography and devoted a considerable 

amount of space and attention to the Guru’s address and dialogue with 

his disciples which we generally miss in the volume of Banerjee. Further, 

as against Banerjee’s restrained and serious literary style, Prasad was in 

full cry with his assertive but orthodox Hindu religious sentiment in his 

analysis of the birth of the Khalsa. He injected much of this sentiment in 

Guru’s speech on the day of the Baisakhi and again on the following day, 

while he was talking to the Hindu Hill Rajas envisaging a united frontal 

attack on the Mughals. In the eyes of the Hindi biographer, the issues 

involved at the time of the creation of the Khalsa were equally clear and 

definitie. He documented it as a bold attempt at restoring the lost Hindu 

glory of the days of the Vedas. Guru’s disciples, Prasad claimed, were the 

direct descendants of the ancient Aryan heroes like Lord Krishna, Rama, 

Yudhisthira and Bhisma. Besides, the Hindus were the original sons of 

the soil, i.e., the Aryavarta, but they were subjected to numerous indignities 

like religious oppression, political enslavement and social sufferings at 

the hands of the alien Mughals. The biographer was therefore of the opinion 

that the Guru had conceived of the Khalsa for attaining the deliverance 

of the Hindus as well as the Indians from the clutches of the Mughal on 

slaughts. He deliberately added to this scheme of work a spirit of ancient 

Hindu racial superiority, perhaps as a counterblast to European racialism 

of his time. 

Prasad’s depiction of the circumstances leading to the birth of 

the Khalsa was generally meant to be an all Hindu affair: the Guru was a 

hero of the Hindus and fought exclusively for the Hindus. In this 

monograph, one would therefore often come across references about the 

Sikhs as an integral part of the Hindu society and Guru Gobind Singh as 

one of the chief architects of the past Hindu military greatness. The Guru’s 

Khalsa, according to him, introduced a spirit of regeneration in the 

moribund Hindu polity. It crystalised in the rebirth of the Sikhs as a 

powerful sub-section of the Hindu social order challenging the fabric of 

the Mughal Empire. It reached the high water-mark under Maharaja Ranjit 

Singh in the first half of nineteenth century. 

While Beni Prasad had no doubt failed to maintain a clear line

157 

of demarcation between Sikhism and Hinduism, he however took a 

meticulous care in identifying some of the injunctions of Guru Gobind 

Singh, constituting an integral part of the birth of the Khalsa. Here he 

practically went a step further from that of Tinkari Banerjee and furnished 

a list of twenty-one injunctions, many of which were missing in the Bengali 

biography of the Sikh Guru. Besides, he drew our attention to the 

significance of the abolition of caste ranking by the Guru. It resulted in a 

better cohesion in the Sikh society. Prasad did not generally hold a very 

high opinion about the Brahmins. In this regard his individual bias was 

perhaps reflected in the Guru’s denunciation of the caste system, especially 

its upper echelon. 

Prasad concludes his study with a critical appreciation of the long 

term significance of the functional role of the Khalsa on the Indian society 

and polity. The biographer regarded the Khalsa as a living social force, 

projecting a definite programme of action in our life. His insistence on the 

Guru’s injuctions like the continuance of unity among the disciples, leading 

a disciplined livelihood, dissociating them from evil human designs, their 

readiness to fight the enemy with a corresponding firm commitment to 

monotheism, simultaneously rejecting priestly domination and meaningless 

rituals, suggest that the Khalsa was conceived to play ‘a definite 

constructive role’ in social relationship. This was not merely an important 

religious institution in the eyes of the author, but it had an agenda of 

constructive social programme for neutralising the threats of an orthodox 

state power and the growing menace of the caste-ridden Hindu social 

institutions. The Guru’s Khalsa sought to provide an effective answer to 

both of them and he warned his readers not to fall a prey to any of these 

provocations contrary to the message of the Khalsa. 

IV 

In Oriya, Lingaraja Mishra furnished an outline of the 

circumstances leading to the birth of the Khalsa ,in his brief study entitled 

Guru Gobinda Simha. 8 The biographer was an erudite Sanskrit scholar, 

sometimes served the Satyabadi school of Gopabandhu Dass, participated 

in the nationalist movement and edited the popular nationalist daily the 

Samaj published from Cuttack. 9 Like two other biographers, Mishra seems 

to have consulted some of the well-known secondary English sources 

mentioned earlier and recorded the Guru’s life and mission in a simple 

style. The Oriya scholar tries to appreciate the message of

158 

the Khalsa from the view point of an Indian natinoalist and reviews it as 

an important chapter of India’s heroic tradition of the medieval days. The 

Guru, according to him, was committed to the regeneration of the Hindus 

and their fight for a rightful place against the oppression of the Mughals. 

His version of Sikh militarism under Guru Gobind Singh was as interesting 

blending of religion and nationalist politics of his time and he justified 

resistance on moral grounds. 

The biographer was particularly concerned with the twenty-one 

fold instructions of the Guru communicated to his disciples a t the time 

of the creation of the Khalsa. According to him, these were first preached 

by the Tenth Guru to the Panch Piyaras who promised to respect them in 

their personal life. Later on, they communicated these instructions to 

other members of the community assembled at Anandpur on the day of 

the Baisakhi. These generated cl new enthusiasm among the Sikhs and 

served as a protective shield against the dissenters. The news however 

alarmed the Emperor Aurangzib and it precipitated a general conflict 

between the Guru’s followers and the Mughals. 

In spite of his scholarship and commitment to the study of history, 

Mishra’s depiction of the birth of the Khalsa suffered from a few serious 

terminological and other ambiguities. His pronounced Hindu nationalist 

bias affected his appreciation of the message of the Khalsa and its role 

during the days of the declining authority of the Mughals in Punjab. 

Besides, he was of the opinion that the birth of the Khalsa occurred in 

1698, i.e., a year ahead of the widely accepted view and he offered no 

argument defending his view. Again, heexphasized that the Khalsa was 

the other name of Sikhism ever since it was first preached by Guru Nanak 

in the fifteenth century and Guru Gobind Singh was credited with the 

birth of the Akalis (which actually should have been the Khalsa) on the 

day of the Baisakhi. These erroneous observations about some of the 

fundamental institutions of Sikhism do not necessarily speak highly of 

his scholarship in Sikh history, though it may be said to have reached a 

greater height in the writings of his contemporaries like Chintamani 

Acharya and Shivaprasad Dass in Oriya. 

V 

These three monographs written in three different Indian 

Languages over a period of nearly 20 years in widely varying conditions 

of India may be taken up as an indicator of the extent

159 

of interest as well as the pattern of response of some non-Sikh authors in 

the first half of the present century towards the creation of the Khalsa. It 

may be argued that one should not perhaps try to arrive at a conclusion on 

the basis of meagre evidence of a particular category of works. While 

partially endorsing the contention of the above View, these monographs 

may also provide a few of the distinctive marks of Sikh studies which 

may again be scrutinised on the basis of a detailed research to be 

undertaken at a later date. These authors were deeply influenced by the 

contemporary communal question and their three major findings in relation 

to the above may be listed below: (1) the Khalsa prominently stood for 

the revival of a militant form of Hinduism, (2) it however denied any 

separate communal identity to Sikhism from that of the Hindus and (3) it 

also conveyed a deep critical sentiment against the Mughals, emphasizing 

in the same breath the importance of the cooperation of the Muslims in 

Indian political life. It was widely believed by many of them, in the words 

of Bulle Shah, that ‘agar na hote Guru Gobind Singh, to sunnat hoti sabh ki’. 

Perhaps an attempt at extending the frontiers of Hinduism marks 

an important aspect of these Sikh studies of the pre-independence decades. 

In this way the biographers also sought to popularise the life and teachings 

of the Sikh Gurus and tried to record them in a style to be easily 

appreciated by common people. Popular legends, symbols and imaginary 

dialogue among the different historical personalities constitute an interesting 

feature of their literary craft. 10 Such writings were widely appreciated by 

the people, many of whom had no direct access to other sources of Sikh 

history. In this way a popular version of the message of the Sikh Gurus 

and martyrs was carried to the arena of many non-Sikhs; this left behind a 

deep imprint on the minds of many of our predecessors and perhaps 

affected the evolution of Indian politics even in the post-independence 

decades. This popular literary touch, we, however, often miss in the writings 

of many of our contemporary non-Sikh academicians engaged in the 

pursuit of Sikh studies beyond Punjab. 

REFERENCES 

1 For details, see Kapur Singh. ‘The Tasks Before the Sikh Youth’, The Sikh Review,

160 

September 1968, pp. 25-26; Madanjit Kaur, ‘The Creation of the Khalsa’ 

Advanced Studies in Sikh ism (Chandigarh : Institute of Sikh Studies, 1989), pp: 

195-213; Dr Trilochan Singh, ‘Baisakhi in Sikh History’. 

2. J.S. Grewal, ‘The Khalsa of Guru Gobind Singh”, From Guru Nanak to Maharaja 

Ranjit Singh’ (Amritsar: Guru Nanak Dev University, 1982), pp.82-93; W.H. McLeod, 

The Evolution of the, Sikh Community (New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1975), p. 16, 

.H. McLeod, Who is a Sikh: The Problem of Sikh Identity (New Delhi: Oxford University 

Press, 1989), pp.43-61. 

3 Tinkari Banerjee, Guru Gobinda Singha (Calcutta: Sanskrit Press Depositary, 1918). 

4. For their views, see Anil Chandra Banerjee, ‘Sir J. N. Sarkar on Sikh History’, Guru Gobind 

Nanak ot Guru Gobind Sihgh (New Delhi : Rajesh Publications, 1975) 

5 For Beni Prasad’s career, see Sushila Tyagi’s unpublished contribution to be published in 

the Dictionary of National Biography. I am indebted to Professor N.R. Ray for allowing me 

to consult this article. Beni Prasad, Guru Gobind Singh (Kashi: Nagri Pracharini Sabha, 

1914). 

7 Beni Prasad, ‘Sree Guru Gobind Singhji’, Saraswati, October 1907, pp. 419-21. 

8 Lingaraja Mishra, Guru Gobinda Simha (Cuttack : Satyabadi Press, 1933). 

9 For the above information about Mishra’s life, I am indebted to Dr. K. Bhyian of 

Anandamohan College, Calcutta. 

10. I like to draw attention to the following lines of two poems, one (A) written by 

Rabindranath and the other (B) by Subramania Bharati. 

(A) Come one, come all, follow me. 

The Guru gives you the call; 

From the depth of my inspired soul I say, 

Awake, my whole country, awake, arise. 

Fear no more and doubt no more, 

Let there be no hesitation; 

I have attained the Truth, 

I have acquired the Path. 

The whole humanity is trekking to follow me, 

Caring not for life or death. 

(Translated from the original by Dr Tri!ochan Singh). 

(B) No Kings for you, God is your King. 

The Rule of Law is the only law 

And wrong doing, your enemy. 

Guru Gobind’s flag fluttered 

High above: the world cheered, 

The beginning of the end 

of Aurangzib’s reign. 

(Translated from the original by Dr Prema Nandakumar).

13 

KOER SINGH’S GURBILAS PATHSHAHI 10: 

AN EIGHTEENTH CENTURY SIKH LITERATURE 

MADANJIT KAUR 

161 

The study deals with an important issue of the early sources 

of information for Sikh Studies. Scholars dealing with Gurmukhi 

sources on Sikh Studies are not only handicapped by the paucity of 

authentic and original material at our disposal but are seriously 

confronted with the problem of dating, ,authorship and authenticity 

of the original texts incorporated in these sources. The study of these 

manuscripts presents a complex pattern of medieval Punjabi genre 

because we have mostly copies of different versions of these texts 

rather than the original manuscripts at our disposal. This problem 

becomes much more multiple, when scholars interpreting and assessing 

these sources make subjective assertions. 

The focus of this paper is to authenticate the dating of Koer 

Singh’s Gureilas Patshahi 10, an important source of information about 

major events on the life and mission of Guru Gobind. Singh and the 

founding of the Khalsa. 

The present study proposes to make a scrutiny of some views 

expressed recently by a scholar rejecting the authenticity of Koer Singh’s 

Gurbilas Patshahi 10 as an eighteenth century source of Sikh literature 

The burden of his arguments and thesis presented in ‘A Reconstruction 

of Sikh History from Sikh Literature (1988) can be delineated as under :- 

. 

(i) The supposed clue to its date is ambiguous 

(ii) A large number of passages is proved to have been 

lifted from Sukha Singh’s Gurbilas Patshahi Dasvin, a 

work of A.D 1797. 

(iii) The heterodox beliefs of the author and Hindu 

portrayal of Guru Gobind Singh do not vouchsafe for 

it, or the period claimed for it.

162 

(iv) The account of Gurbilas Patshahi 10 contains certain 

ideas which would have been suicidal and silly for the 

Sikhs in the middle of the eighteenth century. 

(v) The presence of post-eventum prophecies regarding 

internal conflict amohg Turks. 

(vi) The echoes of differences between the Majha and 

Malwa Sikhs. 

(vii) That the author of the Gurbilas Patshahi 10 mentions 

the presence of the English in the country. 

(viii) That the conciliatory tone of the author of the Gurbilas 

Patshahi 10 towards the Muslims carries a strong imprint 

of Sikh rule under Ranjit Singh. 

(ix) That the increasing number of men coming in the Sikh fold 

had to be educated in the rudiments of Sikhism, which led to the dilution of 

Sikh tenets in the welter of traditional beliefs. 

Thus the scholar seeks to cast a doubt on the time of the work as well 

as on its authorship. 2 The date of compilation given at the end of the work 3 

has been dubbed as ambiguous, and the change of metre in the last stanza of 

the couplet embodying the date of the, work is Supposed to warrant this 

conclusion. 4 But how? He does not show. He very conveniently dismisses 

without discussing the internal evidence with regard to the authorship of the 

work, 5 produced by 

Dr. Fauja Singh in his introduction to the published edition of Koer Singh’s 

Gurbilas Patshahi 10 edited by Shamsher Singh Ashok. 6 This over-simplified 

device applied in rejecting the Jating of Koer Singh’s Gurbilas Patshahi 10 as 

eighteenth century forbodes a subjective bias of the author. The damage of 

this step becomes clear when we keep before us writings of some western 

scholars who, by raising unbecoming controversies, are out, not only to decry, 

but also to demolish the very foundation of Sikhism: undo its doctrines, 

undermine the status of its founder, question evolution of the Sikh community, 

cast doubt on the genuineness of Sikh codes of conduct (Rahitnamas) and find 

fault with the question of ‘Sikh’ identity and definition of a ‘Sikh’ 

The question of the dating of this important work is very significant, 

for on its authenticity depends the resolution of many very intricate problems 

relating to the founding of the Khalsa, the Panj Pyaras, the rahit of the Sikh 

symbols (Five K’s) and succession of the Guru Granth Sahib as Guru after 

the death of the Tenth Master. This is so, for the view expressed in A 

Reconstruction of Sikh

163 

History tends to confirm the theses presented earlier in the writings of Dr. 

W.H. Mcleod 7 who categorically rejects the traditional account about the 

founding of the Khalsa on the Baisakhi day of AD. 1699 8 and holds that 

the Sikh Rahit Maryada and Sikh symbols (Five K’s) were evolved sometime 

during the eighteenth century and were not prescribed by Guru Gobind 

Singh on the Baisakhi Day of A.D.1699 . 9 

As the limited purpose of this paper is to re-interpret the dating 

of Koer’ Singh’s Gurbilas Patshahi 10, we shall concentrate on the internal 

evidence of the work supporting and authenticating its authorship and 

dating. 

(1) The chief merit of Koer Singh’s Gurbilas Patshahi 10 is that the 

date of the completion of the work is explicitly given at the end of the 

account as under: 

;zws p;[ fJekd; skfj w?A e[wko ;[ wk; e/ fdt; ;zMkoh .. 

d jok . nm d; ;zws gqEw po, wk; e[nko e nkfj .. 10 

The date of this work was calculated by Bhai Vir Singh as 1819 

Bikrami (A.D. 1762). He clearly takes into account both the word Basu 

which represents eight and the word ekadsi which means eleven. But 

Shamsher Singh Ashok and Fauja Singh, it appears, accept 1808 Bikrami 

(A.D. 1751) as the date of start of the work and 1811 Bikrami (AD. 1754) 

as the date of conclusion of the work. Hence, it is not correct that the 

word ekadsi has not been taken into account or kept unexplained. In fact, 

Bhai Vir Singh’s work clearly took this into account in arriving at its date 

as 1819 Bikrami (AD. 1762). Hans’s second argument about the change 

of meter at the end of the dating is without any basis. It appears Hans is 

not aware of the fact that the meter had to be changed because the four 

lines of the Swaya had ended earlier and Koer Singh’s option was either 

to restart another Swaya of four lines or repeat a Dohera as he has done 

here and at numerous other places in the text. 13 Hence, the criticism about 

the date, which is the strongest point of the writing, is without any 

rationality. We can, thus, very clearly and safely place the work between 

A.D. 1751 and A.D. 1762 and there can be no doubt about its being a 

mid-18th century work. By no stretch of imagination can the unambiguous 

date be ignored. Had Koer Singh wanted to predate his work, he would 

never have given the date clearly and claimed only to have received the 

account from Bhai Mani Singh’s lectures. If he had any desire to pre-date 

his work, he could easily claim to be the contemporary of the Master

164 

as some writers of Rehtnamas have done. Hence, authenticity of the date 

or the timing of this work is unchallengeable. 

(2) Gurbilas Patshahi 10 written by Koer Singh sometime in A.D. 

1751-1762 is thus anterior to Sukha Singh’s Gurbilas Patshahi 10 which 

was completed in A.D.1797. Therefore, there is no question of Koer Singh’s 

indebtedness to Sukha Singh.Besides, Koer Singh’s work is primarily based 

on the narration of events by eye witness contemporaries of the Tenth 

Master. In fact, the work is an anthology of discourses delivered by Bhai 

Mani Singh 14 who received Amrit from the Tenth Master. This inference 

is authenticated by internal(evidence of Gurbilas Patshahi 10 which 

mentions this categorically: 

wBh f;zx J/ puB nbkJ/ . ;[B' ykb;k ih fus bkJ/ .. 

fJj Xowr eEkk w? GkJh. pv ft;Eko ;{yw eo okyh .. 

This is not the only reference to Mani Singh, there are other 

references too. Even the concluding part of the work expresses 

acknowledgement of the debt he owes to Bhai Mani Singh for the entire 

account’ 

fdfs ;qh r[o fphk; ;qh wBh f;zx ws ty:kB ooBBz Bkw fJeh;w' X:kfJ 

efp ykb;k gzE toBBz, g:kB uko ;wkgsz . ;qh nekb ih ;jkfJ .. 16 

This is another factor showing its non-dependence upon Sukha 

Singh’s Gurbilas for its narration. There is however, no doubt that Koer 

Singh’s Gurbilas drew on ‘Bachitra Natak’ (part of Dasem Granth), Gursobha 

(Saina Pat) and Jangnama (Anni Rai) 17 

Koer Singh preceded later writers of Gurbilases. Material for many 

events and even verbatim passages recorded in Sukha Singh’s Gurubilas. 

(A.D. 1797), therefore, appear to have been lifted from Koer Singh’s work 

and not the other way round. While Koer Singh clearly indicates the source 

of his information, there is no ground to suggest an inverted inference as 

drawn by the learned author. Therefore, the presence of a large number 

of common couplets in both these works does not form any reason to 

place the dating of Koer Singh’s work in nineteenth century; There is no 

indication to suggest that Koer Singh’s work is later than that of Sukha 

Singh. . 

(3) It is clear from the internal evidence that Gurbilas Patshaht 10 

was written by Koer Singh Kalal, 18 who was a Sahajdhari Sikh and perhaps, 

took Khande di Pahul if at all, at a very later stage. He himself apprises us 

of this fact:

e[fJo f;zx ebkb nfs i'Jh . oj? ezp'nB nzrB ;'Jh . 

Bkw wksqh f;zx j' GkJh . g{op yzv/ gkj[b B bJh .. 

165 

For this reason, the account of Sikh belief-system recorded in his 

Gurbilas lacks adequate understanding and naturally suffers from 

introduction therein of his Brahmanic convictions and puranic vision. It 

appears he has at places projected his old convictions and personal beliefs 

in explaining Sikh theology and Sikh practices as also futurology of Sikh 

history. His statements about the prophecies made by Guru Gobind Singh 

in this regard can be seen as post-eventum rather than prophecies. 20 Thus, 

mythology and history merge as the subjective correlation of Puranic 

inheritance of the author with the societal role of Sikh ideology in which 

he does not seem to hesitate giving way to his Sanatanist beliefs while 

purporting to write about the life and works of the Tenth Master, Guru 

Gobind Singh. 

A socio-cultural study of the text of Koer Singh’s Gurbilas reveals 

that the work excels in the application of epic dimension to mythic 

sensibility. Even a cursory survey of the text would reveal that Gurbilas 

Patshahi 10 is a typical medieval Indian text, the popular genre of the 

eighteenth century Punjabi literature. 21 Therefore, the impact of Vedic 

culture and Puranic school of thought is visible in the modes of literary 

forms applied by Koer Singh in his account. 22 

This factor is primarily responsible for drawing the conclusion 

that its author, Koer Singh,”held heterodox beliefs” and depicted “Guru 

Gobind Singh as worshipper of the Goddess 23 24 and presented a “Hinduized 

portrayal of Guru Gobind Singh”, 25 that the Guru remained detached 

and passed on the responsibility of creation of the Khalsa Panth on the 

Goddess herself, the Khalsa was placed at the feet of the Goddess and 

the Guru was an incarnation to destroy the Turk-Malechas. 26 

(4) The fourth argument forwarded in rejecting Gurbilas Patshahi 

10 as eighteenth century work is that the author of the Gurbilas Patshahi 

10 does not show much sympathy with the people, for example: 

‘One should be ever vigilant. The officials should not 

get involved with the people. One should be efficient, 

neither too friendly nor too inimical to one’s subjects. 

People are like lions (singhs) who find friends in 

none.’ 27 It is preposterous for a Singh, much more for

166 

Guru Gobind Singh, to hold such a doctrine. ‘The 

subjects need a strong hand to deal with, 28 Women, 

people, land and money are faithful to none.’ 29 ‘Such 

ideas would have been simply suicidal and silly for the 

Sikhs to hold in the middle of the eighteenth century.’ 30 

These were the stock ideas held by medieval Hindu scholars ‘as a 

legacy of Manu and Chankaya. It has already been stated that Koer Singh 

is a person with strong Brahmanical sentiments and leanings. Hence this 

suggestion against women and for ‘discriminatory or hierarchical beliefs is 

natural from him. The objection of Hans is again without any meaning 

because such Brahmanical expression of views against woman and equality 

is not only contrary to the Sikh views of the 18th century but they are 

opposed to the Guru Granth itself. Hence, Hans’s argument is hardly 

relevant regarding the dating of the work on this account. 

(5) Fifthly, Koer Singh’s statement about the conflict between the 

Turks and the consequent opportunity for the Sikhs to establish their rule 

seen by our scholar as post eventum prophecies is not sustainable. 31 Koer 

Singh was composing his work at a time (AD. 1751-1762) when the Afghan 

invasions of the Punjab were on and the disintegration of the Mughal 

power was on the anvil. The Afghan-Mughal conflict proved it golden 

opportunity to the Sikhs. Under the able leadership of Sardar Kapur Singh 

Faizullapuria, the Sikhs had already organised themselves into Dal Khalsa 

(Military groups of the Sikhs). Sardar Kapur Singh had come to be addressed 

as the Padshah (King) or Nawab of the Sikhs. He was the supreme 

commander of the Dal Khalsa. At the meeting of the Dal Khalsa on the 

Baisakhi day of 1748 at Amritsar, which was almost synchronous with 

the first Abdali invasion, on the proposal of Kapur Singh, the chief 

command of the Dal Khalsa was reorganised into twelve misls 

(Confederacies). 32 

The Sikhs in collaboration with Kaura Mal had defeated the A 

“,hans. 33 They were offered a Jagir by Mir Mannu. 34 During the third Afghan 

invasion (AD. 1751-52) Punjdb virtually passed under Sikh protection 

until Lahore and Multan were ceded to Ahmed Shah Abdali (AD. April 

1752). 35 The Sikhs reconsolidated their position and spread out in Bari 

Doab, Jullundur Doab and across the Sutlej; 

They crossed the Jehlum and subdued the Musilm tribes of the 

region by the end of the same year. 36 Keeping this background in view 

one can easily imagine, that the vision of Koer Singh in

167 

making prophetic statements through Guru Gobind Singh about the future 

development of the Sikh history is a by- product of the historical events 

witnessed by the author himself. It does not demerit the dating of the 

work, rather, it supports the fact that the recorded date of the work, A.D. 

1751-1762, is correct. 

For two reasons Hans’s argument carries no weight. First, as 

indicated above even if it is assumed that it was a post-event prophecy, 

the event in fact had taken place before Koer Singh wrote his book. Second, 

that the practice of attributing prophecies to saints was a common trait of 

the period. And, in fact, Senapat, who wrote his book in early 18th century 

and was a contemporary of the Tenth Master has also recorded virtually 

the same prophecy regarding the defeat of the Turks and the dominance 

of the Sikhs. If Hans’s rationale is stretched it would lead to an evidently 

ridiculous suggestion that Senapat was a person of the 19th century. 

(6) The sixth argument forwarded for rejecting its recorded date 

and considering the Gurbilas Patshahi 10 as nineteenth century work is 

that,”there are echoes of differences between the Majha and the Malwa 

Sikhs”... 37 “The acceptance of British overlordship by the Sikh chiefs of 

the Malwa could form the background for this opinion of the Malwais.’ 38 

This is a far fetched conclusion. The Malwa states passed under the 

protectorate of the British in A.D.1809. But the Sikh chiefs of the Malwa 

region had throughout maintained an attitude of indifference to the Khalsa 

cause; and, if at all they took any interest, it favoured the Afghans. The 

Patiala House owed their extensive states and important position largely 

to the favours conferred by Ahmad Shah and they also professed 

submission to the Afghans. For this reason the Malwais were held In 

contempt by the Majha Sikhs. 39 Koer Singh’s apathy and bias towards 

Malwais had been generated on account of Malwa Sikhs’s lack of 

dedication to Khalsa convictions and the selfish behaviour of Phulkian 

misal which seldom joined the Dal Khalsa and did not come forward to 

join the Majha Sikhs in any compaign against the enemyof the Khalsa. 

Rather the Malwais sometimes acted against the interests of 

thecommunity. 40 Therefore, the above argument is frivolous. 

(7) The seventh argument for the dating of Koer Singh’s Gurbilas 

as nineteenth century work is that,”the author of the Gurbilas 

Patshahi 10 was familiar with the presence of the English 

(Firangi of Koer Singh) in the country.’. 41 This. argument again is

168 

frivolous and is based on lack of knowledge of the induction of this word 

in Indian literature. Koer Singh has mentioned the term firang. 42 Awareness 

about firangis (the Europeans) in India is to be met in various Persian 

sources of seventeenth and the sixteenth centuries. 43 The word even stands 

used in the’ Akal Ustat’ by Guru Gobind Singh 44 which is anterior to 

Koer Singh’s work. 

(8) Hans looks upon Gurbilas Patshahi 10 as the nineteenth century 

work on the basis of the argument that: 

The conciliatory tone of the author of Gurbilas Patshahi 

10 towards the Muslim...together with the Hindu 

portrayal of Guru Gobind Singh, makes one suspect 

that the Gurbilas Patshahi 10 carries a strong imprint of 

Sikh rule under Ranjit Singh for whom it was absolutely 

necessary to hold three communities in some kind of a 

balance.’ 45 

The question is that if the author is simply projecting the political 

exegesis of the Sikh rule under Maharaja Ranjit Singh, why has not Koer 

Singh mentioned any historical reference to the Maharaja’s rule in the 

related context? It is an accepted fact that they theory of. soverignity 

followed by Maharaja Ranjit Singh was that of a Benevolent Monarchy 

and trusteeship of a Welfare State. 

Here again Hans’s argument is based on two assumptions. First, it 

is baseless to suggest that Ranjit Singh’s human treatment of his non- 

Musilm subjects was born out of sheer opportunism and was not because 

of the Sikh ideology and ethos to which the seals of all the Sikh rulers 

bear testimony. Benevolent liberalism of the Sikhs was an integral character 

of the Sikh society, quite incongruous with the contemporary and earlier 

rulers of the times. Second, that the Sikh rule and the liberal treatment of 

the subjects is a phenomenon of the 18th century as evidenced by the 

rule of Kapur Singh, Jassa Singh Kalal and at the time of conciliation 

with Mir Mannu through Kaura Ma1. 46 

At any rate the Sikhs did not oppress the innocents as is 

vouchsafed by the writings of Qazi Nur Mohammad who says ‘they (The 

Sikhs) do not stand in the way of fugitives; nor molest a woman. 47 

(9) Lastly, Hans relates his hypothesis about the expansion of the 

Lahore Kingdom out of its true context and forwards it as supplement to 

justify his argument mentioned above by asserting that:

169 

the expansion of Sikh rule under Maharaja Ranjit Singh 

marked a new departure in the evolution of Sikhism. 

Rulership was aspired to but never fully visualized in 

the Sikh doctrines. The position was further 

complicated by the minority status of the rulers. Thus 

the bonds with the Hindu constituency had to be 

strengthened. The Muslim population had to be 

pacified not only administratively but also doctrinally. 

Furthermore, the increasing number of men coming 

into the Sikh fold had to be educated in the rudiments 

of Sikhism, a process which led to the dilution of Sikh 

tenets in the welter of traditional beliefs. 48 

It is clear that the scholar is deliberately making a misrepresentation 

of Sikhism and distorting the unity of Sikh thought for the sake of rejecting 

Gurbilas Patshahi 10 as eighteenth century work. It is also derived from his 

thesis put forth in A Reconstruction of Sikh History from Sikh Literature that 

the history of Sikhism is an evolution of the product of historical factors 

rather than of its fundamental doctrines. There is no historical evidence 

to support the view that theoratically there was any departure in the 

fundamentals of Sikhism in the course of the development of the history 

of the Sikhs. In reality the Sikhs had successfully faced challenges both of 

Mughal oppression and of reabsorbtion into the Brahmanical Hinduism. 

However powerful the Sikh rulers had been, they could not afford to 

formulate any dilution in the Sikh doctrines enshrined in Guru Granth 

Sahib. Therefore the last argument of Hans carries the imprint of not only 

a misconception but also of misinterpretation of the authenticity and 

unity of the thought and traditional beliefs of Sikhism in order to support 

the view expressed by Mcleod earlier in his various writings. 

Conclusion 

A critical analysis of the subject under study cannot escape the 

attention of a discerning scholar that the views expressed about Grubilas 

Patshahi 10 in Hans’s A Reconstruction of Sikh History from Sikh Llterature 

(1988) are incorrect assertions about a significant source of early history 

of the Sikhs and are based on self-contradictory statements and textual 

analysis, without a rational exegesis of the hypothesis adopted by the 

scholar.

REFERENCES 

1. Surjit Hans, A Reconstruction of Sikh History from Sikh Literature, ABS 

2. Ibid. 

Publications, Cosmic Printers Modem Market, N.C. Road, ]alandhar, 1988, p.206. 

3. Gurbilas Patshahi 10 (ed. Shamsher Singh Ashok, Introduction by Fauja Singh,) 

Punjabi University, Patiala, 1967, p. 295. 

4. Hans, op.cit.,p.266. 

5. Gurbilas Patshahi 10, op.elt., pp.47,99,294-95. 

6. Ibid., Introduction, pp.1-2. 

7. His Publications are : 

Guru Nanak and the Sikh Religion, Oxford, 1968; 

The Evolution of the Sikh community, Oxford, 1979; 

170 

Early Sikh Tradition, Oxford, 1980; The Chaupa Singh Rahitnama Duncdin, 

1987; The Sikhs, History, Religion and Society, New York, 1989; Who is Sikh? 

Oxford,1989. 

8. Evaluating the traditional interpretation of the founding of the Khalsa, McLeods 

observes; 

We may be sure that something certainly did happen on that Baisakhi day of 

1699, and that some of the traditions will even tuallyurn outto be substantialIy 

accurate. Moreover, there can be no doubt that the Khalsa did eventually 

establish an effectuill claim to represent the orthodox form of the Sikh Panth. 

Already, however it is possible to demonstrate that many of the traditions are 

historiographical phenomena, features which developed subsequently but 

which came, in even later in terpretations, to be related to the time and in tention 

of Guru Gobind Singh. 

-The Evolution of the Sikh Community, Oxford University Press, Delhi, 1975, p.16. 

9. Ibid, pp51-52. 

10. Koer Singh, Gurbilas Patshahi 10, p.295 

11. Bhai Vir Singh, Devi Punjan Pardtal, Khalsa Samachar, Amritsar 1963, footnote pp.55-56. 

12. Hans, Op.cit., p.266. 

13. Koer Singh, Gurbilas Patshahi 10, p.296. 

14. Ibid. 

15. Ibid., p.295. 

16. Ibid., p.296. 

17. Ibid., Introduction, p.3. 

18. Ibid., p.294. 

19. Ibid., p.295. 

20. nkg; w? tj[ bo?A nbkg .. 

ykb;/ phu nkg w? . s[oeB e' fB;fdB w?A dj' . 

Ibid., p. 27 

Also

ifj s[oeB e/ j'fJ nyko/ . ikfJ ;h; bkr/ pj[ g:ko/ . 

skfj ykb;k eo j? oki . ;h; br/ i' ;fsr[o eko .. 

Ibid., p. 283 

21. Mythic identification of the life history of the Sikh Gurus is not new for scholars famlier 

with the nature of sources of information of Sikh history. Most of these accounts were written 

171 

by Brahmin authors or Udasis or Nirmalas who were educated in Vedantic institutions. The 

impact of their training is clearly reflected in their writings. Most important among them are 

Kesar Singh Chibbar, Banasawalinama Dasam Patshaian Ka, Sohan Kavi, Gurbilas Patshahi 6. Koer 

Singh Gurbilas Patshahi 10, Sarup Das Bhalla Mahima Prakash, Santokh Singh, Nanak Prakash abd 

Suraj Prakash Granth etc. 

22. See the structural framework of the various episodes recounted in different 

chapters of his Gurbilas Patshahi 10. 

23. Hans, Op.cit., p.267. 

24. Gurbilas Patshahi 10, Op.cit., p.175. 

25. Ibid., pp?37,43,59,68,71,79,84, 100,26,127,258. 

26. j/j Gkh e"se ehB j>, i' wB go T[geko . 

nkg fBnko' j'fJ e?a Xo d/th f;o Gko . 

gzE ykb;k wks gd, vkok n?; gqek; . 

s[oe wb/SB Bk; e', j? r[o{ e' ntsko .. 

27a ;tkXkB wB ngBk ehi? . d¯so w[B;h o?:s B Ghi? . 

Bfj nfs t?o B fwsqukoh . fBg[B ;[ ekoi w? fBoXkoh . 

o?:s Bio f;zx eh j'Jh . ngBk fwsq B ikB? e'Jh . 

28a s:'o?:s e/ phu gSkB' . fJB e' skVB nfXe gSkB' . 

uko fwsq fJj fe; e/ Bkjh . i/ j't? vgeowB skjh . 

Ibid., p.260 

29a Bkfo ;[ o?:s fiwh gSkB' . n" bSwh eh ohsfj ikB' . 

uko fwsq fJj fe; e/ Bkjh . i/ j't? ngeowB skjh . 

Ibid., 

30. Hans, O.p.cit., pp.268-269. 

31. Ibid., p.269. 

32. Sohan LaI SuriIUmat-ut- Tawarikh (Persian), 1885, Lahore, Dafter n, p. viii, Teja Singh and Ganda 

Singh, History of the Sikhs, VoI. I, Orient Longmans, Bombay, ] 950, p.136. 

33. Tarikh-i-Ahmad Shahi, pp.23-24, Terikh-i-Muzzafari(Persian),p.457i Ali-ud-Din Mufti, Ibratnama (Persian) 

Ms, 1854, p.238, Sohan lal Suri Umdat-ut-Tawarikh, Dafter I, pp.129-131 as quoted by Teja Singh 

and Ganda Singh, History of the Sikhs, V 0l.I, p.141 also Gian Singh Giani, Shamsher Khalsa, Part 

II, Bhasha vibhag Punjab Patiala, 1970, p.169; Rattan Singh Bhangu, Prachin Panth Prakash, Fifth 

Edition, Khalsa Samachar Amritsar, 1982, pp.329-331.

34. Gian Singh Giani, Shamsher Khalsa,Part-II, p.l65; Teja Singh and Ganda Singh, 

History of the Sikhs, Vol. I., p.139. 

35. Teja Singh and Ganda Singh, Op.cit., p.l39 

36. Ibid., p.147. 

37. Hans, Gp.cit., p.269. 

38. Ibid. 

39. Teja Singh and Ganda Singh, O.p.cit., YoU, p.l64. Kushwant Singh, History of the Sikhs, Oxford 

172 

University Press Delhi, 1977, Vol. I, p.135. 

40. Ibid., also, Rattan Singh Bhangu, op.cit., p. 324; Karam Singh Maharaja Ala Singh (Punjabi), Khalsa 

Parcharak Vidyala, Taran Tarn, 1819, pp. 207-213. 

41. Hans, op.cit., p.269. 

42. Gurbilas Patshahi 10, p.259. 

43. See Court Chronicles produced during the time of the Mughal Emperors-Akbar, Jahangir and 

Shah Jahan. 

44. pzr e/ pzrkbh fcojzr e/ fcozrtkbh fdbh e/ fdbtkbh s/oh nkfrnk w?A ubs j?A .. 

o'j e/ o[j/b/ wkx d/; e/ wx/b/ pho pzrk;h pzd/b/ gkg g[zi e' wBs j' .. 

‘Akal Ustat’, 255, Sri Dasam Guru Granth Sahib Ji, ed. Giani Mohinder Singh pub. 

Jawahar Singh Kirpal Singh Amritsar, 1966, p.38. 

45. Hans, Op.cit., p.269. 

46. Teja Singh and Ganda Singh, op.cit., p.132; Khushwant Singh Gp.cit., p. 130. 

47. Nur Muhammad, Qazi, fang Namah (Ms. 1778, A.H., A.D. 1764-65) Persian, 

Eng. Tr by Ganda Singh, Pub.KhaIsa College Amritsar, 1939, Ch. XLI. 

48. Surjit S. Hans, The Gurbilas in the Early Nineteenth Century in Journal of Regional 

History, Department of History, Gurur Nanak Dev University, Amritsar, Vol.II, 

1981, p.56

14 

THE SIKHS AND THE BRITISH - 1849-1920 

GURDARSHAN SINGH DHILLON. 

173 

Recently many scholars, especially in the West, have contended 

that the assertion of a distinct Sikh identity in the mid-nineteenth 

century was very largely due to advertent support extended by the 

British. W.H. McLeod holds that “there were several Sikh identities 

available during the period immediately following the 1849 annexation 

and one such identity (the militant Khalsa version) was vigorously 

promoted by the British in order to serve their own military purposes. 

The same identity was accepted by the stronger 1 of the Singh Sabha 

leaders and became the focus of their reforming activites late in the 

nineteenth century.” 2 Richard Fox refers to the Sikhs in the Indian 

army “transmuted into Singhs by the British.’. 3 Scholars like N .G. 

Barrier and Rajiv Kapur have also referred to the recruiting and 

organisational policy of the British Indian army as the instrument for 

fostering the distinct Sikh identity. Rajiv Kapur observes: “Recruitment 

into the army provided strong encouragement for the development 

and maintenance of a separate Sikh identity.” 4 Barrier 5 and Fox 6 both 

find themselves caught in an intricate and incoherent analysis of the 

British motives in dealing with the Sikhs. 

The Relevant Questions are: Did not the Sikh leaders invoke the 

Sikh doctrine in the Guru Granth? Was it not inevitable for a Sikh 

movement, aimed at restoring the purity of Sikhism, to remove outside 

accretions, including Hindu influences and make the Sikhs stand on 

their own ground un-encumbered? Was it not necessary for the Sikhs 

to go through a discipline of education in order to equip themselves 

for participation in the political life? Is it right to brand the Singh 

Sabha leaders as loyalists and accuse them of misguiding 

the community to selve the ends of the British In India? 

Did not the Sikhs have to wage a long battle to maintain their religious 

institutions and practices and free their Gurdwaras

174 

from the control of the Mahants and Pujaris, who enjoyed the patronage 

and backing of the British? Is it right or misleading for the historians to 

talk of the role of the British military policy in promoting the Sikh identity 

and to make a complete black out of the Sikh ideology and four hundred 

years of the Guru period and Sikh history? How can they turn a blind eye 

to the patronage extended by the British to the Mahants (Priests) at the 

Sikh temples who because of their background opposed the Sikh identity 

tooth and nail? 

In deriving some of their hasty and illconceived inferences, the 

writers fail to study the subject methodically and to see the Singh Sabha 

Movement and its work in the background of (a) the Sikh ideology, (b) 

the method and history of the Sikh Gurus and the Sikh movement in the 

preceding three hundred and fifty years and (c) the general and overall 

historical perspective of ideological movements during their lean periods. 

Therefore, in order to make a comprehensive and methodical study of 

the subject, we shall divide our paper under the following heads: (i) the 

Sikh ideology, (ii) the preparatory period of educating and motivating the 

masses, (iii) revivnginstitutionsand centres of the faith to rebuild the Panth 

and its distinct identity and the final stage of political preparation and 

struggle, (iv) realities of the situation after the annexation of Punjab and 

factors hostile to Sikh identity, (v) the Singh Sabha Movement and its 

plan of work, activities and achievements, (vi) the preparatory stage leading 

to the second stage of Gurdwara Reform Movement and participation in 

political struggle, (vii) general historical perspective, and (viii) conclusion. 

First of all we shall take up salient features of the Sikh religion, 

especially where Sikhism made a radical departure from the earlier religious 

traditions. 

Sikh Ideology: Sikhism is a revelatory religion, which revolted against 

the religious hypocrisy of the Brahmins and the political oppression of 

the contemporary rulers. Guru Nanak the founder of the Sikh religion 

stressed the unity of God 7 and the brotherhood of man. 8 He attacked 

such pillars of the Hindu society as caste, 9 idolatry 10 ritualism, 11 asceticism 12 

and intermediary role of the priests 13 in man’s relations with God. His 

spiritual thesis, with an inalienable social content, sought to establish 

equality not only between man and man but also between man and woman. 

He welded the spiritual and the temporal planes of human existence into 

a harmonious whole and brought about reconciliation

175 

between the religious and the secular means for achieving the best results 

in human affairs. 14 The Guru’s followers were not required to chant Sanskrit 

Shalokas before stone idols but sang hymns composed by the Guru himself 

in their mother tongue. They came to have different places and modes of 

worship. It was not an easy task to confront the dogmatism of the priest 

dominated and caste-ridden Hindu society. The Guru brought about a 

far-reaching transformation in the minds of the people through the 

institutions of Shabad, Sangat, Pangat, Guru-Ka-Langar, Guru and 

Dharmsal. The three cardinal principles of Guru’s teachings were: ‘Kirt 

Karo’ (earn your bread through hard labour), ‘Vand Chakko’ (Share your 

earnings with others) and ‘Naam Japo’ (always remember God). This 

resulted in building a separate and self-reliant community with new beliefs 

and institutions. 

The process of separation was carried forward by the second Sikh 

Guru Angad. He introduced the Gurmukhi script, in which he compiled 

Guru Nanak’s and his own compositions. The Guru was opposed to 

mendicancy and parasitical living. He earned his own living by twisting 

coarse grass strings used for cots. The third Guru Amar Das took many 

steps which tended to break further the affiliations of the Sikhs with the 

Hindus. He introduced new forms of ceremonials for birth, death and 

marriage. he deprecated the practice of ‘Purdah’ and ‘Sati’, encouraged 

inter-caste alliances and re-marriage of widows. He declared that the Sikhs 

who were active householders were wholly separate from the passive and 

recluse ‘Udasis’ whom he excluded from the Sikh Society. The Guru 

established twenty two new centres or parishes (Manjis) for conveying the 

message of Guru Nanak to the people. 

These centres were supposed to cater both to the religious and 

the empirical needs of the poeple. Guru Ram Das, who succeeded him as 

the fourth Guru, acquired the site of the present city of Amritsar which 

became the religious capital of the Sikhs. He had a tank dug around which 

bazars or trading centres were established. 

Arjan Dev, the fifth Guru, took some very important steps for 

fortifying the Sikh identity. He raised the Harmandar and gave to the 

Sikhs a central place and shrine of their own. This was to wean away 

Sikhs from Hindu institutions like those at Hardawar, Varanasi, etc. He 

also gave the Sikhs a scripture of their own in the form of 

Granth Sahib, which they could read and understand. They did 

not require the help of Brahmin priests to read out Sanskrit

176 

texts from the Vedas or the Upanishads, which they did not understand. It 

was Guru Arjan, who very clearly and emphatically declared that the 

Sikhs were an independent community: 

“I do not keep the Hindu fast, 

nor the Muslim Ramadan; 

I serve Him alone who is my refuge, 

I serve the one Master who is also Allah, 

I have broken with the Hindu and the Muslim, 

I will not worship with the Hindu nor like 

The Muslim go to Mecca, 

I shall serve Him and no other, 

I will not pray to idols nor say the Muslim prayer; 

I shall put my heart at the feet of the One Supreme Being; 

For we are neither Hindus nor Mussalmans” 15 

Guru made, for the principles of his religion, the Supreme sacrifice 

of his life and became the first martyr in Sikhhistory. Guru Arjan’s son 

and successor Guru Hargobind started military preparations. His resort to 

arms was in keeping with the last instructions of his father. Guru Nanak 

too had rejected Ahimsa as an inviolable religious doctrine. Facing the 

Harmandir, Guru Hargobind built the Akal Takhat, a seat of the temporal 

authority as distinct from Harmandir Sahib, clearly signifying that the 

Sikhs owed their primary allegiance to God. He also set, up two flags 

fluttering before it as visible symbols of Miri and Piri, i.e. the temporal 

and the religious authorities. The concept qf Miri and Piri was the natural 

and inevitable outcome of the doctrine of the combination of the spiritual 

and the empirical laid down by the first Guru. That this combination is 

fundamental to the Sikh doctrine is clear from the fact that in Sikhism the 

insignia for Piri or spiri,tualism is a sword and not a rosary. ‘Many of the 

misunderstandings by scholars of Sikhism or its history are due to their 

failure to have an adequate knowledge of the Sikh ideology. This lack of 

knowledge, or sometimes bias, is quite apparent among scholars drawn 

from pacifist or dichotomous religions. 

The ninth Sikh Guru Tegh Bahadur suffered martyrdom to counter 

the forces of tyranny and injustice and to uphold the freedom of man to 

practice his religion. He domonstrated that to lay down one’s life in defence 

of righteousness was a paramount religious duty. When a report was sent to 

Emperor Aurangzeb that the Guru was organising a people (Millat), he offered 

to the Guru that if he confined his activities to prayers and preachings,

177 

he would be given grants for the purpose, provided he gave up his political 

activities. But the Guru declined the offer. 16 The inspiration stemming 

from the creative vision of Guru Nanak reached its climax under the 

tenth Guru, Gobind Singh. The ideal of Saint-Soldier implicit in the Miri- 

Piri doctrine of Guru Nanak fructified in the creation of the Khalsa of 

Guru Gobind Singh. It was the objective of the Sikh society or Khalsa to 

restore justice and harmony in the prevailing state of affairs. He created 

the Khalsa, a disciplined body of Sikhs, and conferred upon them a distinct 

look. He gave them a martial name ‘Singh’ (Lion) and prescribed five 

Kakars including kirpan and unshorn hair. In fact, the rule about keeping 

unshorn hair started a debate and those wanting to shave hair and to 

follow Hindu customs were automatically excluded from the Sikh society. 

17 The symbols strengthened religious discipline, gave external uniformity 

to the Sikh faith and served as aids to the preservation of the corporate 

life of the community. It is very important that the egalitarian principle 

was an accepted and practiced norm of the Sikh society. It is noteworthy 

that four out of the five Piaras (Beloved ones), who offered their heads to 

the, Guru and were baptised were Shudras. He intended to make a complete 

break with the past religious tradition through the introduction of Nash 

doctrine involving Kirtnash, Kulnash, Dharamnash, Bharamnash and 

Karamnash 18 i.e. the giving up of all those beliefs, ideolgies and practices 

that came in the way of the sole worship of the One Supreme Being. The 

creation of the Khalsa was a unique phenomenon in the annals of mankind. 

It was the epitome of the Sikh movement. There is no evidence, 

whatsoever, to suggest that there was any other Sikh identity or society 

promoted by the Gurus or in existence in the seventeenth or eighteenth 

century. The Guru raised the Indian spirit from servility, interiority, fatalism 

and defeatism to the dynamic ideal of responsible reaction and resistance 

against tyranny and injustice. The supreme acts of martyrdom of the 

Guru, his father, mother and four sons for the cause of righteousness left 

an indelible stamp on the Sikh way of life. It is sheer idleness to think or 

suggest that the deep seated moral conditioning formed by the longest 

chain of martyrdoms and conscious struggles, could just be re-created or 

affected by any wishful self-interest of the British or any other ruler. Such 

artificial creation of religious identity are unknown to history. 

During his life time Guru Gobind Singh chose Banda Singh

178 

Bahadur to conduct the final phase of the Sikh struggle against the Mughal 

Empire. It was under his leadership that the Khalsa armies won decisive 

victories and shook the very foundations of the mighty Mughal Empire. 

Banda struck coins in the name of the Khalsa Panth. The inscriptions on 

the coins are significant: ‘’This coin is struck as a token of our sovereignty 

here and hereafter. This divine bounty flows from the sword of Nanak 

(Tegh-i-Nanak) and the victory and felicity is the gift of Guru Gobind 

Singh, the king of kings, the true Master.” 19 

This coin itself clearly signifise that in the consciousness of the 

Sikhs of those times, there was complete unity of spirit and ideology 

between the first and the last Gurus and in fact among all Gurus. It clearly 

shows that the concept about differences in the ideologies of the first and 

the tenth Master is a figment of later arm-chiar or partisan writers unknown 

to the Sikhs or people of the earlier centuries. Banda Bahadur’s seal also 

depicted similar thought i.e., “Degh-the kettle for service, Tegh, the strength 

of the sword arm, and Fateh, the resultant victory, received by Guru 

Gobind Singh from Guru Nanak.” 20 

Under Banda’s inspiration, Sikhism became popular with the people 

of Punjab. About one lac persons embraced Sikhism. Banda and several 

Hundred soldiers of the Khalsa army who were arrested, kept their cool 

even in the face of death. None of them renounced his faith to “Save his 

life. 21 They carried on the glorious traditions of sacrifice and martyrdom 

for the cause of righteousness handed down to them by the Gurus. Their 

blood created fertile soil for sprouting the seeds of Sikh glory. The Sikhs 

confronted the hordes of Persian and Afghan invaders with the same 

religious spirit. This was a time when a price was put on every Sikh head 

and thrice it was reported to the authorities that the Sikhs had been 

exterminated root and branch. 22 The imperial order for the elimination of 

Sikhs was directed at the destruction of the Nanakpathis. 23 It did not 

declare them as Sikhs or Singhs or the Khalsa. This clearly’ indicated that 

there was no question of any multiple identities among the Sikhs in the 

eighteenth century. The clear teachings of the ten gurus and the fire of 

suffering and persecution had welded the Sikhs with a unity of ideals, 

ethos and practices entirely different from those of the Hindu society 

with which they were surrounded. The Bani and the Nash doctrine created 

the wall of division betweem them, and persecution and suffering 

cemented the internal cohesion of the community as a 

distinct society. For the followers of the Gurus and their opponents, there 

was only one community of Nanakpanthis, Sikhs or Khalsa whose sole

179 

founder was Guru Nanak. The definition of a Sikh was very clear, without 

any scope for ambiguity. There was no question of any multiple identities 

among the Sikhs. 

After a long period of turmoil, suffering and persecution, the Sikhs 

rose to political power under Ranjit Singh, who ruled under the banner of 

Sarkar-i-Khalsa. It was at this time that Hindus swelled the ranks of the 

Khalsa in the hope of temporal gains. The population of the Sikhs, which 

at one time was reported to be not more than twenty thousand in the 18th 

century now rose to the peak figure of 10-11 lacs in the times of Ranjit 

Singh. 24 It was not so easy for these converts of convenience to shed 

some of their beliefs and practices. Ranjit Singh had to spend most of his 

time in conquering and consolidating territories. The result was that the 

Sikhs had hardly any time to set their house in order. It is evident that the 

large scale increase in the Sikh population was due to the new entrants 

who had flocked to the new faith not out of conviction but to put up an 

appearance of closer ties with the poeple in power. 25 There began a new 

phase of Sikhism with new entrants to the Sikh fold. Their ways and 

customs were still overlaid with Hinduism. It was very easy for them to 

slide back into their old faith when power did not rest with the community. 

This was the first time in their history that the Sikhs could be divided into 

two categories, the first consisting of those who nursed their traditional 

culture and carried in them the spirit to suffer and sacrifice for a righteous 

cause and the second comprising the new lot with hardly any strong 

commitment to the faith. During the Guru and the post-Guru period 

there is no evidence, whatsoever, of the so called multiple identities’. 

During the phase of struggle and persecution in the 18th century, when 

to be a Sikh was to invite death, the Sikhs never had any ambiguity about 

their identity or ideals created by the ten Nanaks. And both for the insiders 

and outsiders there was a single community of society they had created. 

They kept the torch of Sikhism ablaze through tremendous suffering and 

sacrifice. 

Post-Annexation Period :- With the fall of the Sikh kingdom, the 

new entrants to the Sikh fold started waveringin their loyalty to Sikhism. 

The Sikhs had hardly had peace for one generation, some 

of these new entrants reverted to Hinduism and its old 

prejudices and practices. 26 Still there were many for whom the border line 

between Hinduism and Sikhism became very thin and

180 

vague and they kept unsurely on the border line between Sikhism and 

Hinduism. In their outlook, character and behaviour they stood dearly 

apart from the main segment of the Sikh society who had a clear identity. 

The latter traced their lineage from the Guru period and had inherited the 

glorious tradition of martyrdom for the cause of righteousness. With the 

emergence of the British as the new rulers, the relationships between 

Muslims, Hindus and Sikhs underwent a complete change. In Punjab the 

Hindus, who had looked upon the Sikhs as their protectors against the 

Muslims and were partners in power during the years of triumphs under 

Ranjit Singh, showed hardly any commitment towards Sikhism that had 

successfully fought battles for liberty and freedom of the land and its 

people. With both the Muslim threat and the Sikh kingdom gone, the 

external pressures that had held them seemingly close to Sikhism 

disappeared. They had to redefine their mutual relationship. Apart from 

this, the role of some members of the Hindu elites during the period of 

annexation, a point which we shall detail later on, was far from creditable 

and created some gap between the two communities. It is note-worthy 

that the Hindu Dogras and Purbias during the crucial Anglo-Sikh wars 

deserted the Khalsa army. On the other hand, the Muslim part of the 

Khalsa army fought against the ‘British till the end. 27 Tears at the defeat 

of Sarkar-i-Khalsa were shed by Shah Muhammad, the celebrated Muslim 

poet. 

The British looked upon the Sikhs as enemies and initiated a policy 

aimed at the suppression of the ‘War-like Sikhs”, with the help of an 

army of occupation comprising 60,000 soldiers and a police force of 

15,000, largely manned by the Punjabi Muslims. 28 Special precautions 

were taken in policing the Majha area, where Bhai Mehraj Singh and Narain 

Singh were reported to be active. 29 The royal house of the Sikhs was 

completely destroyed. It is well known that Maharani Jindan, called the 

“mother of the Khalsa” whom the British considered to be the root cause 

of all trouble was treated very shabbily and was forced to leave the country. 

30 The minor Maharaja Dalip Singh was made to resign “for himself, his 

heirs and successors, all rights, title and claim to the sovereignty of the 

Punjab or to any sovereign power whatever. 31 ' The ‘Koh-i-Noor’, 

considered by Dalhousie as a historical emblem of conquest in India, was 

presented to the Queen of England. 32 

The Government confiscated all the valuables, including the antiques of 

the Sikh Raj from the Toshakhana of the Maharaja and

181 

also the estates of all those chiefs who had fought against the British in 

the two Anglo-Sikh Wars. 33 Some of them were exiled from punjab and 

others were kept under surveillance in their own houses. They were not 

allowed to keep arms in their possession. 34 Forts and defensive 

fortifications- practically every Sikh village had defensive bastions-were 

levelled. All military grants to the Sikh Jagirdars were abolished. 35 Henry 

Lawrence, as head of the Board of Control, responsible for the 

administration of Punjab, recommended slight leniency towards the Sikh 

nobility. He thought and argued that it was most impolitic and dangerous 

to deprive them of their rights unfairly. But, he was overruled by Governor 

General Dalhousie, who in pursuance of his imperialistic policies, thought 

that the “Jagirdars deserved little but maintenance,” 36 Henry Lawrence 

tendered his resignation over this issue. 

Nearly 50,000 Sikh soldiers were disbanded. 37 Hardly a tenth of the 

old army of Punjab was taken into the British pay. Although the 

term’Sikh’was used for the re-employed soldiers, few were in fact Sikhs. 

They were largely Punjabi Muslims, Gurkhas and Hindustanis of the 

Durbar army. The British officers looked upon the Sikh soldiers with 

suspicion. They were called, “dirty sepoys” 38 and many officers wished 

them to cut their hair” forgetting that the very essence of Sikh ism lies in 

its locks. 39 D. Petrie, an Assistant Director, Criminal Intelligence, 

Government of India, in a Confidential report on the ‘Development of 

Sikh Politics (1900-1911)’, wrote: 

“The British adopted a very strict and rigid policy detrimental to the 

growth of Sikhism. After annexation, the Golden Temple Amritsar, 

alongwith 6 other Gurdawaras and the Gurdawara at Tarn Taran were 

practically controlled by the British authorities through a Manager of these 

Gurdwaras appointed by the British Government. The waqf Act of 1861 

gave the control and Management of the holy places of the Hindus and 

Muslims to the communities concerned but in the case of the Sikh 

Gurdwaras, the Act was not applied on political grounds. The properties 

of Sikh places of worship were transferred and given over to the Udasi 

Mahants and others, throughout the Punjab” 40 A significant blow was 

given by the British to the Sikh religion when they conferred proprietory 

rights to the temple Mahants, Brahmins, Udasis or Nirmalas, 41 

most of whom had Hindu leanings and hardly understood 

or had faith in the Sikh religion and its practices. This

182 

was- an extremely subtle method by which the British sought to secure 

the undoing of the ideological base of the Sikhs. A committee of nine 

Sikhs with a Government nominatedSarbrah or Warden as its head was 

appointed. After 1883, however, the Committee was quietly dropped and 

the whole control came to be vested in the Sarbarah who received his 

instructions from the Deputy Commissioner. 42 The government wanted 

to maintain the Gurdwaras as channels of indirect control of Sikhs. 

The British rule dealt a severe blow to the socio-economic condition 

of the Sikhs. Thousands of Sikh soldiers were rendered jobless. Because 

of earlier wars and consequent disturbances, the lot of the peasantry was 

no better. Instead of the Sikhs, Hindus were preferred in the civil services. 

Most of the jobs in military and police were given to the Punjabi Muslims. 

Out of the eleven Extra Assistant Commisssioners, appointed by the 

Board of Control, only one was a Sikh. 43 

The Christian Misssions which came to be established in Punjab, also 

generated a feeling of hatred and hostility towards the Sikhs. The Charter 

granted in 1600 by Queen Elizabeth of England to a Colonising Company 

spoke of “duties higher than those of Commerce.” 44 If merchants must 

buy and sell, they must also convert. Religious imperialism was the first 

phase of British Colonial imperialism. Christian Missions worked under 

British political wings. The Missionaries established their centres at 

Amritsar, Tarn Taran, Batala, 45 Ludhiana and Lahore, 464 Many Sikh students 

studying in Missionary schools began to despise the religion of their 

forefathers. 47 48 Some of them cut their hair and beards. The conversions 

of Maharaja Dalip Singh and Raja Harnam Singh of Kapurthala were 

serious and deliberate blows at the roots of the community.Further, the 

growing success of Missionaries in their evangelical work, with the support 

of the Government, was an overt measure against the Sikhs. Sir John 

Lawrence used to make annual contribution of Rupees five hundred 

towards missionary activities. 49 Some of the Misssionaries openly 

condemned the Sikh institutions, tradition and Gurus.They called the 

Guru Granth a “heathen scripture.” 50 The Administrative Report (1849- 

51) noted: “The Sikh faith and ecclesiastical policy is rapidly going where 

Sikh political ascendency has already gone... These men joined (Sikhism) 

in thousands and they now desert in equal numbers... The sacred tank of 

Amritsar is less thronged than formerly, and the attendance at annual 

festivals is diminishing

183 

yearly, Initiatory cremony for adult persons is now rarely performed .... 

Gurmukhi is rapidly falling into desuetude. The punjabi as a spoken 

language is also losing its currency and degenerating into a merely provincial 

and rustic dialect.” 51 A series of discreditable manouevres, interference 

with the local customs, feverish activity of the Christian missions and the 

attempts to westernise the Sikh culture filled the Sikhs with alarm. 

Sikhs and Mutiny:- During the Mutiny of 1857, the Muslims sought 

the restoration of the rule of Muslim princes and rulers and the Hindus 

hoped to put the Maratha rulers back into power. The princes of the two 

communities had a unity of purpose in putting up a common front against 

a common enemy, the British. Because of the earlier British repression of 

the Sikhs, they were too disorganised to think of putting up a united 

leadership to reclaim their lost kingdom. The community was leaderless. 52 

Moreover, the situation in the Punjab was quite different from the one 

that prevailed in the rest of India. An important and the main factor was 

that the Sikhs had nursed a serious grudge against the Purbias who, despite 

the Sikhs having never given them any cause for offence, had by their 

betrayal and other overt and covert acts, helped the British during the 

Anglo-Sikh Wars and later in the annexation of Punjab. The British used 

the Sikh grievance and consequent “natural hatred” towards the Purbias. 

Kavi Khazan Singh in his work, ‘Jangnama Dilli’, written in 1858, mentions 

that the Sikh participation against the Purbia soldiers was in reaction to 

their boast that they had vanquished the Sikhs in 1845-46 and in 1848- 

49. 53 Another contemporary observer noted: "The animosity between the 

Sikhs and the Poorbiahs is notorious. The former gave out that they would 

not allow the latter to pass through their country. It was, therefore, 

determined to take advantage of this ill-feeling and to stimulate it by the 

offer of rewards for every Hindoostanee sepoy who should be captured.’ 54 

The bitter memories of Purbia cooperation with the British were’so fresh 

in minds of the Sikhs that any coalition between the two became 

impossible. The people who now claimed to be fighters for freedom were 

the same who, eight years earlier, had actively helped the British to usurp 

Sikh sovereignty. The pleas of Purbias were so hollow and incongruous 

with their earlier conduct that they fell on deaf ears of the 

aggrieved Punjabi Sikhs and Muslims whose independence they 

had helped the British to rob. Besides it is a well accepted 

view that the risings in 1857 were just revolts by the

184 

princes to regain their feudal or territorial rights. It was far from being any 

ideological struggle or for any common Indian interest. In this context, 

the Sikhs in the background of their rule in Punjab and egalitarian traditon 

could hardly be expected to side with Muslim and Hindu princes to regain 

their kingdoms, nor could religious taboos which affected Hindu and. 

Muslim sentiments, against many of which the Sikh Gurus had led a 

crusade, could in any measure inflame Sikh sentiments. It was on account 

of all this that the Punjab was not affected by the rebellion which 

convulsed the rest of northern India. Punjabi Mussalmans turned a deaf 

ear to their Hindustani co-religionists’ exhortation of ‘jihad’ against the 

pig-eating despoilers of Islam. Punjabi Hindus and, with greater reason, 

the Sikhs refused to listen to the belated appeal to save Hindu Dharma 

from beef-eating foreigners who used cow to grease their cartridges. 55 

However, there were stray cases of Sikhs joining the mutineers. It was 

reported that a large number of Sikhs gathered at Ropar and declared the 

Khalsa Raj for which the leader of the band was immediately put to death. 

A Sikh Chief Raja Nahar Singh was executed for supporting the cause of 

the rebels. After annexation Bhai Maharaj Singh had moved from village 

to village in Majha region and incited the people to rebel. 56 

The Cis-Satluj chiefs of Patiala, Malerkotla, Kalsia, Nabha, 

Faridkot and Jind, alongwith their mercenary forces, rendered full help to 

the British in suppressing the rebellion. These chiefs owed their existence 

to the British and were always outside the main Punjab, being hostile to 

Ranjit Singh. They still remembered with gratitude the support extended 

to them by the British against Maharaja Ranjit Singh. But for the British 

protection, Ranjit Singh would have overpowered them long ago. The 

British had guaranteed them full protection ever since the proclamation 

of 1809 (Treaty of Amritsar). Very few scholars have studied the role of 

the Sikhs in the Mutiny in its true historical perspective. In the opinion of 

M.A. Rahim: “Disarmament of people, dismantling of fortifications, 

disbanding of the Khalsa Army, suppression of the Sikh gentry, stationing 

of a large army and police in the Punjab and various other measures were 

taken to cow down the brave militant and turbulent Khalsa nation into 

humble submission...so that the Khalsa may not be allowed to recover its 

prestige and reconstitute its army.” 57 Similarly, Evans Bell believes that 

the Khalsa was bound to feel discomfited for their Gurus had been 

discredited and their union had been dissolved. 58

185 

Although the Mutiny did not spread to Punjab, the British. did 

not look upon the Sikhs as trustworthy. They knew that Punjab was still 

seething with disaffection. Therefore, they kept a strict vigil over their 

fallen enemies. A big force consisting of 60,000 soldiers and 15,000 police 

personnel was stationed in Punjab to exercise control in the event of an 

emergency. There was one soldier for every forty persons. Thus, peace in 

Punjab was preserved at the point of bayonet. A Government report of 

this time noted: “A spirit of nationality and military ambition still survives 

in the minds and hearts of thousands among Sikhs. It was vain to suppose 

that thoughts of future triumphs and future independence did not cross 

the imagination of these people or that aspirations of restoring the Khalsa 

Raj were not excited during the summer of 1857. Universal revolt in the 

Punjab would have broken out if Delhi had not fallen soon into our 

hands.’’ 59 Despite recruitment from Punjab during and after the revolt, the 

total number of Sikh soldiers by May 1858 stood at 13,344 as against 

20,027 Mohammandans. 60 

As detailed above, it is evident that the Sikh soldiers who mad 

joined the British army in 1857 were, by and large, drawn from the 

Cis-Satluj states, whose rulers during Ranjit Singh’s rule owed their very 

existence to British bayonets and who even during the Anglo-Sikh wars 

were obviously sympathetic to the British and not to the Sikhs. In fact, the 

Sikhs of Punjab were virtually segregated from the rest of India by the 

intervening Cis-SatIuj states and the adjacent Hill and Dogra rulers, who 

‘had been traditionally pro-Delhi. So far as the HilI-Rajas were concerned 

their hostility towards the Gurus and the Sikhs dated from the Mughal 

period. 

British Policy after Mutiny :- With the transfer of authority from the 

East India Company to the Crown, it had become the declared policy of 

the British to give due respect to the religious sensibilities of each 

community, to raise army regiments on communal lines to ensure that 

every community, and not the Sikh community alone, observed its separate 

religious discipline. The Immediate cause leading to the Mutiny had been 

the greased cartndges smeared with the fat of cows and swines. This had 

ou traged the feelings of both Hindus, to whom the cow was sacred, and 

Muslims for whom the swine was unclean. The British Goverment had 

learnt a good lession, and its policy, in reference to Indlan religions was 

radically altered. While deciding to raise regiments on communal lines, 

the British also kept in view the prejudice of the caste Hindus, especially 

in matters pertaining to

186 

eating from a common mess and living together under the same roof in 

the military barracks. Government not only maintained the religious 

identity of the units but also respected the religious taboos of the soldiers, 

and even allowed each Brahmin to cook his food separately. 61 

In the new native army the number of high castes was reduced. A 

soldier in each regiment was required to take oath of allegiance on his 

respective scripture by the help of his own priest at his own place of 

worship. Soldiers were allowed to use their Own communal war-cries. 

This new policy was in no way designed to further one religion at the cost 

of the other. A notable decision was taken to reduce the number of native 

sepoys in the Indian army and to increase the strength of the European 

soldiers. There was an overall decrease of 40 per cent in the total strength 

of the native soldiers but an increase of 60 per cent in the number of 

European troops. It was an established principle of the British policy for 

the period since 1858 that the native troops should not exceed more than 

40 per cent of the total army. 

Many scholars like Fox, Mcleod, Rajiv Kapur and Barrier have 

wrongly highlighted the recruiting policy of the British in maintaining 

religious neutrality and freedom, as if this policy had only related to the 

Sikhs. ,Actually as we have stated, it was a general policy regarding the 

maintenance of religious neutrality and status quo concerning each 

community. It is, therefore, incorrect that the British policy either in any 

manner related only to the Sikhs, or that it had introduced any religious 

practice that had not been in existence earlier in the 18th and 19th centuries. 

It is, therefore, an idle prejudice to suggest that the British’ chose any 

particular or Khalsa identity. In relation to every community the British 

accepted what was the authentic and the typical. In fact, any partiality or 

prejudice in the choice of any sect would unnecessarily have raised 

criticism, which the British wanted to avoid, being contrary to their new 

religious policy of neutrality. Here it is relevant to give the statement of 

Henry Lawrence quoted by Barrier in his article, ‘The Punjab Government 

and Communal Politics, 1870-1908’: “My men are expected to extend 

equal rights to all native religions and to align with none.” 62 On the basis 

of the above statement and other facts Barrier concludes that “the first 

Punjab administration thus responded to a communal problem with 

religiousimpartiality.” 63 In fact the burden of his entire article is to suggest 

British neutrality towards different religious communities

187 

in Punjab and defend them against the charge of creating communal 

divisions. It is difficult to understand what climatic change has occurred 

or interests have over-weighed with the same author that later he writes 

that, “that British also played an important role by supporting the 

maintenance of separate Sikh identity for military purposes.’ 64 Because, it 

is normally unusual for an author to give on the one hand a clean chit to 

the British for their avowed and practical neutrality towards the three 

communities in Punjab, and, on the other hand, strongly to endorse the 

oft-repeacted charge of Hindu politicians that the Hindu-Sikh divide in 

Punjab is a British creation to serve their partisan interests. Besides, this 

religious policy regarding various communities had been formulated by 

the British long before the publication of pamphlets by the Singh Sabha 

at the fag end of the 19th century. Here it is very important to mention 

that the British religious policies regarding communal practices in the 

army were strictly governed by their own self-interest” so as to maintain 

the loyalty of the soldiers. The important and authentic fact is that both 

for the Muslim rulers of the 16th to 18th centuries and the British rulers 

of the 19th century, there was only one reality or identity, namely the 

Sikhs, Nanakpanthis or Khalsa with which they battled or dealt with. Any 

other identity existed neither in the field of religion, society, politics nor 

even in fiction or imagination. The religious realities the British found, 

were dealt with uniformly by their new religious policy; they did not choose 

anyone, ignore any one, or promote anyone. It is only the split vision of 

some interested modern writers that raises the phantoms of plural images 

that for the rulers and historians of the times were non-existent. 

But the British knew full well that the centres of Sikh strength 

and inspiration were their scripture, ideology and Gurdwaras. In fact, the 

British were very vigilant and particular in ensuring that the Sikh 

Gurdwaras were kept in the hands of the Hindu Mahants and Pujaris so 

that the Sikhs who were traditionally known to draw theIr religious vigour, 

vitality and inspiration from their ideology and holy places, some of which 

associated with the martyrdoms and struggles of the Gurus against the 

rulers, were, through the Government policy and their appointed managers, 

segregated from their glorious tradition and corrupted ideologically. 

Recruitment to the army was made, keeping in view, the qualities 

of hne physique and a military background and tradition.

188 

The British, no doubt, had preference for martial races but the Sikhs were 

not the only martial race recruited in the Indian army. There were many 

Muslim tribes and Hindu castes like the Pathans and Dogra Rajputs with 

martial traditions, who provided good recruiting grounds for the British. 

This is amply borne out by a contemporary report in the Army Book: 

“At present the Sikhs, together with the other inhabitants of the 

Punjab, whether Hindu, as the Dogra (Rajputs), or Mohammandan as the 

Punjabi Mussalmans, and the Pathan Musulmans, the latter being 

descendents of Afghan or other Asiatic invaders of India, are reckoned 

among our best and most willing soldiers.” 65 M.s. Leigh observes ;- “Although 

the Sikhs produced a percentage of recruits during the First World War 

greatly in excess of their percentage in the population of Punjab, the fact 

remains that out of the 370,609 combatants recruited from Punjab, 

190,078 (51.4%) were Moslems and “only” 97,016 (26%) were Sikhs. "66 

In fact, the lower Hindu contribution to recruits is not due to any 

selective policy of the Government but is due to the Hindu population in 

Punjab being largely urban and well-off in trading and business and, for 

that matter, being reluctant by tradition to accept risks and hazards of a 

military career. 

Attack on Sikh Identity: The Government of India Act of 1858, 

which transferred the authority from the East India Company to the Crown 

brought the Sikhs directly under the Imperial rule. After the loss of political 

power, a sense of despair pervaded the Sikh society. An editorial in the 

Khalsa Advocate sums up the situation. 

“False Gurus grew up in great numbers whose only business was 

to fleece their flock and pamper their own self-aggrandisement. Properly 

speaking, there was no Sikhism. Belief in the Gurus was gone. The idea 

of brotherhood in Panth was discarded.’ 67 

Under the circumstances the discerning Sikh mind knew full well 

that while the chances of engaging themselves successfully in a political 

battle with the British were slim, it was essential to invoke and strengthen 

its relgious base which was their very source of zeal and vigour. 

Advent of Christian missions and spread of western education 

and science also provoked self-understanding. Natural1y, the Sikh mind 

looked back on its history and ideology with a clear self-discerning eye.

189 

The ideological1y and politically conscious wing of the Sikhs was 

being calculatedly curbed and kept under virtual surveillance. It was a 

tremendous task to revive the purity of the Sikh doctrine and to rid the 

faith and its institutions of wrong accretions and adulterations in order to 

maintain their independence. It was under great difficulties that the Sikhs 

started their struggle for survival in the mid-nineteenth century. They 

rightly realised that before they could consciously and usefully start any 

political struggle with the British masters, they had to revive and 

reinvigorate their religious understanding and discipline. Like the Sikh 

Gurus, who had undone the social and religious trammels of Hindu 

dogmatism and created new motivations and traditions in the Sikh society 

before preparing and taking up the struggle against political oppression, 

the Sikhs at this time decided first to reinforce their socio-religious base 

and strength before taking up the political challenges. 

Contrary to what is generally imagined, the fall of the Sikh kingdom 

was an episode in the turbulent history of the Sikhs, rather than the close 

of an epoch. The proudest outcome of the apparent disaster was that it 

forced Sikhism to exist on the strength of its own ideology and tradition. 

The period between 1849 and the rise of Singh Sabha was a time of acute 

pain, trauma, distress, confusion and even of some despair in the Sikh 

society, which had altogether to face multifarious problems. The British 

were too conscious to ignore the political potential of their foe that had 

given them the greatest challenge. Obviously, they were keen that the 

political objectives of the community should be kept permanently 

frustrated. For this end, they had taken away and converted the Sikh 

Maharaja Dalip Singh and virtually exiled the entire family of Ranjit Singh. 

Similarly, the principal political Sardars were also curbed or hunted out. 

Such a thing for an erstwhile victor was natural to do and the Sikhs ,had 

no illusions in this regard. The British knew very well that the entire vigour 

and strength of the Sikhs lay in their religious zeal and it was their religion 

from which they derived their entire inspiration and power. Therefore, 

with their. uncanny understanding they made sure that the Sikh religious 

places were kept in hands that were hostile to the thesis of the Gurus and 

sought to divert them to the ritualistic maze of Hinduism. 68 

The contrast is very significant, whereas the British restored the 

territory and kingdoms of princes and persons who had

190 

revolted during the Bri tish rule, they made sure that none from the family 

of the Maharaja or the Sikh Sardars were allowed to have an opportunity 

to regain the leadership of the Khalsa because in the case of the Sikhs, 

they knew, they were dealing not with individuals, but with a people or a 

nation imbued with an ideology of liberty and independence. The Sikh 

princes kept were those who had always been non-leaders of the 

community and outside the pale of Sarkar-i-Khalsa. 

The second part of the attack on Sikh religion was the arrival of 

Christian missionaries in the heart of Central Punjab under the political 

wings of the British. Their activities and propaganda as already indicated 

were significantly subversive to the Sikh religion. In fact, the Missionaries 

sought in every way to facilitate the colonial expansion of Britain by 

objectively acting as agents for their country’s big capital. They were often 

unofficial consuls. Third is the process and thinking that starts at the time 

of a ship feared to be sinking. As the bulk of converts of convenience 

were from Hinduism, most of whom had neither shed their old practices 

and prejudices nor their socio-ritual connections with their parent 

community, they started reversion to that fold as also revival of their 

affinities with the Hindus. That this trend took the form of a serious 

attack on Sikhism is evident from the virulent activities of Pt. Sharda 

Ram Phillauri a topSanatanist Hindu leader considered to be an agent of 

the British. He spoke even from the precincts of Darbar Sahib, 69 with the 

cooperation of British nominees in charge of it. With the rise of Arya 

Samaj, it also started propaganda against the Sikh religion and vicious 

personal attacks on the Gurus. Phillauri delivered a series of lectures at 

Jallianwala Bagh, Amritsar, in which he made disparaging remarks against 

all the Sikh Gurus 70 He also published a book entitled Sikhan De Raj Di 

Vithya, in which he misinterpreted the teachings of the Sikh Gurus 71 The 

book was prescribed in the OrientalCollege, Lahore, as a subject of study. 

72 Such distorted accounts of Sikhism and Sikh history undermined the 

prestige of the community. And all this could not happen without the 

British patronage. Though the British were on the one hand claiming a 

policy of neutrality towards Indian religions, they were fully and approvingly 

aware of this multi-pronged attack on the Sikh source of strength, their 

religious places and ideology. 

The reality is that both the Mughal and the British rulers were well 

aware of this intimate connection between the life-affirming

191 

moral zeal of the Sikhs and their religion and places of worship. In the 

past too, with this awareness 73 in mind, the Afghan invaders led by Ahmed 

Shah Abdali sought to destroy Darbar Sahib and fill its sacred tank 74 

Similarly, Massa. Rangar tried to have his indulgent orgies at the sacred 

precincts of this centre of Sikhism 75 The British also tried to weaken the 

religious base of the Sikh community by extending support to the pro- 

Hindu Mahants and Pujaris of the Sikh temples 76 

In the beginning of 1873 four Sikh students of the Mission High 

School, Arnritsar, under the influence of the Missionaries, offered 

themselves to be converted to Christianity. 77 There were protest meetings 

all over the province and prominent Sikh leaders persuaded the boys not 

to abandon their faith. But the incident served as an eye-opener to the 

Sikhs. Sikhism, at this time, came under severe a ttack. In this state of 

affairs the traditional Sikh ethos was bound to react. 

Birth of Singh Sabha ;- With a view to mustering forces for an all 

round Panthic upliftment, some prominent Sikhs including Harsha Singh 

Dhupia, Thakur Singh Sandhawalia, Baba Sir Khem Singh Bedi and Raja 

Bikram Singh Kapurthala, convened a meeting in Amritsar in July, 1873. 

The meeting was attended by leading Sikh. chiefs, Sardars, Gianis, Pujaris 

and Mahants of the Sikh Gurdwaras of Amritsar and the adjoining districts. 

78 The new association, Sri Guru Singh Sabha, Amritsar, was formed on 

July 28, 1873. 79 The object of the Singh Sabha was to take up social, 

religious and educational programmes. 80 But most of the leaders of the 

Amritsar Singh Sabha being drawn from the rich, the upper, the privileged 

and the British supported strata of the Sikh society, were not ready to 

shed their old prejudices against the low-caste Sikhs. They sided with the 

Mahants and Pujaris in discriminating against them. This created a gulf 

between the high and the low-caste Sikhs and, thus, the movement failed 

to gain the support of the masses because this behaviour of the Mahants 

and Pujaris was clearly contrary to the basic tenets and practice of Sikhism. 

81 Baba Khem singh Bedi tried to wield absolute control over the activities 

of the Sabha. Being a direct descendent of Guru Nanak, he aspired for 

reverence due to a Guru and claimed some privileges. His followers called 

him avtar (Incarnation of God). 82 He wanted a well-furnished seat (gudela) 

for himself even in the presence of the Holy Granth. 83 This shocked the 

Sikh feelings. 84 

The Amritsar group adopted and approved anti-Sikh

192 

practices like discrimination, and personal worship, and made ideological 

distortions. 85 Naturally, persons conversant with the Sikh tradition objected 

to all such aberrations resulting in a schism and formation of the Lahore 

Singh Sabha in November 1879. 86 It is significant to say that the chief 

organisers of this Sabha were devoted Sikhs with humble beginnings, 

whereas the Amritsar Group was clearly British backed. The Lahore Singh 

Sabha developed a broad and comprehensive outlook, making no 

distinction between the high and low-caste Sikhs and extending its activities 

both to the urban and rural masses of Punjab. They preached and practised 

Sikh value system as required by the Guru Granth. They strongly opposed 

the institution of human worship and regarded a!l men as equals. 87 They 

judged a man by his worth and not by his birth. Bhai Gurmukh Singh 

made an appeal to the Sikhs of all castes and classes, to enlist themselves 

as volunteers of the newly formed Sabha and to carry its message to every 

nook and corner of the Punjab. 88 

The religious revival under Singh Sabha was a protest against 

forms and ceremonies and class distinctions based on birth. It was ethical 

in its preference for a pure heart, the law of love, and good works. This 

religious revival was the work of the poeple, of the masses, and not of 

the classes. At its head were leaders like Ditt Singh, Gurmukh Singh and 

others, who sprang chiefly from the lower orders of the society- Ramdasias, 

weavers, cooks, clerks, shopkeepers, peasants rather than the gilded gentry. 

Thus, the gulf between the privileged and the British-backed, and the 

Sikh oriented groups started and continued. And, it is this basic difference 

which some of the scholars ignore. 

Whereas the appeal of the Amritsar Singh Sabha was mostly 

confined to the personal pockets of influence of its leaders, that of the 

Lahore Singh Sabha went further and touched the hearts of the general 

mass of the community. Lahore party sent its Parcharaks (preachers) even 

in the interior of the State to spread the message of Sikhism among 

hundreds and thousands of the village folks, who constituted the backbone 

of the Sikh community and without whose cooperation no movement 

could acquire a mass base. Simultaneously, the Lahore Singh Sabha opened 

branches in many towns. By 1882, the Singh Sabhas sprang up at places 

like Peshawar, Bannu, Kohat, Ebetabad, Jullundur, Gujranwala, Lyallpur, 

Patiala Simla, Jhelum, Ludhiana, Ambala, Quetta, Multan 

and Jind. 89 Lahore Singh Sabha served as a model for all

193 

these Sabhas. Since the Lahore Singh Sabha was working in line with the 

Sikh tradition and the Amritsar Singh Sabha was concerned only in 

maintaining their own personal position and privileges, very soon, except 

for three Singh Sabhas, all rural and urban Singh Sabhas joined the Lahore 

Sabha. 90 

McLeod calls the section of the Singh Sabha that promoted the 

Sikh identity the “Stronger” one. This statement begs the question. The 

real question to answer, which McLeod avoids, is why it proved to be the 

stronger, the better and the wiser leadership.For there is no reason to 

assume that the Lahore Singh Sabha was in material respects more 

influential. In fact from the angle of social status, and available resources, 

the Lahore Singh Sabhaites were men of meagre means and belonged to 

the lowest class and castes. On the other hand the Amritsar Singh Sabha 

belonged to the gilded gentry includidng Knights and Princes, who looked 

to the British as their masters. Thus, if the British had their way they 

would have their designs executed through their own and rich loyalists 

who looked upto them both for their gained, strength and future prospects. 

By none of the normal socioeconomic factors can the Lahore Singh Sabha 

be called the stronger one. What McLeod seems to conceal by calling 

them stronger is the moral strength and sap which they drew from the 

Guru Granth and the lives of the Gurus. Hence McLeod’s own reluctant 

admiission of the strength of the Lahore Singh Sabha demolishes the very 

basis of his argument that the Sikh identity which the Lahore party 

espoused was either a created or a planted one, or not the only original 

one. Mcleod seems to conceal the fact, of which he could not be unaware, 

that originally the only Singh Sabha with all its branches was headed by 

the rich and gilded gentry. It is later that, on ideological grounds, some 

junior and unprivileged members broke away from it and formed the 

Lahore Singh Sabha . 

No political, economic or social factor in any sense contributed 

to its growth and spread except its ability.to invoke the Sikh doctrines in the 

Guru Granth.Itis still later that all except three branches of the old Singh 

Sabha shifted their affiliation from the old to the new Singh Sabha. We do not 

think it is fair for a scholar to suppress or omit such a fact and to suggest to the 

reader that the. British supported the Lahore Singh Sabha because it was the 

stronger one. The Lahore Sabha’s appeal to the masses lay in the 

Sikh doctrines and not in any material, British or social factor. It 

appears the author has been unable to shed the conditioned bias

194 

that is naturally associated with long years of functioning in Chirstian 

organisations in Punjab. 

Again, there arose a schism in the first meeting of the newly 

constituted Khalsa Diwan (on April 11, 1883), when Baba Khem Singh 

Bedi suggested that the title of the Singh Sabha should be changed to 

Sikh Singh Sabhas. 91 The object was to include the Sehjdhari Sikhs. But the 

proposal was considered motivated, being only a method to include under 

this garb Hindu followers of the gilded Bedis, making regular offerings to 

them. .It was straight away opposed and rejected outright. At this time, 

these Bedis alongwith Thakur Singh Sandhawalia and their followers were 

inspired by their personal interests. 92 As things were, it would have been 

naive to hope that any worthwhile political rebellion could be organised 

in the State. For, the British with their experience of 1857 were quite 

cautious and alert, and they sent back Dalip Singh from Aden. 

The Lahore leaders strictly wanted to adhere to the Sikh ideology 

as enjoined in the Guru Granth and practised in the tradition. The Baba 

desired to assume the role of a spiritual guide and the Raja aspired to 

become the temporal head of the whole community. 93 Baba was, therefore, 

ready to allow some laxity in maintaining the five symbols. 94 The Lahore 

group maintained that Sikhism was as proclaimed by the Guru Granth, 

the Gurus and the Sikh tradition. They laid emphasis on Rehat perscribed 

by the Tenth Guru. They did not tolerate any attempted ideological 

compromise with Hinduism. 95 

The activities of the Singh Sabha were focussed on the deprecation 

of un-Sikh like customs and social evils and the encouragement of modern 

education. The revivalist impulse stirred the Sikhs to an awareness of 

their faith and impelled them to resuscitate the essential cbntents of Sikh 

beliefs. It was a trying time for the Sikhs, because their religion was under 

serious attack from the resurgent Arya Samaj section of the Hindus. 96 In 

this context, the move of the Amritsar Singh Sabha to own and promote 

Hindu practices among their followers had to be repelled as a serious 

departure from the Sikh tradition. Hence, Singh Sabha had to fight on 

many fronts, against the Arya Samaj, against the Christain missionaries, 

against the British-backed elite of their own community, and against 

the corruption of the British patronised Mahants and Pujaris 

who prctised anti-Sikh rites at the sacred Sikh shrines. The 

Sikh literature was collected, scanned, edited and

195 

compiled. Amongst these was Bhai Kahn Singh’s well-known work ‘Mahan 

Kosh’ and the ‘Ham Hindu Nahin’(Sikhs are not Hindus) as a rejoinder to 

the Arya Samaj propaganda that the Sikhs were Hindus. 

The British government at this time was also ready to encourage 

freedom of thought, ideas of reforms on modern lines and even social 

revolt so long as these did not touch the dangerous ground of politics.” 97 

The Government appreciated the division of people’s attention from 

politics to religious and social reform. It refrained from adopting any such 

policy as would further antagonise the Sikhs, arouse their military instincts 

and remind them of their lost glory. The following remarks of Lord 

Lawrence are note-worthy in this connection:”The Sikhs were the bravest 

and the most chivalrous race in India and they now seemed disposed to 

submit with manly self-restraint to our superior power, if only we use it 

with equity and toleration.” 98 

The British were extra cautious in dealing with the Sikhs and this 

is borne by observaion of Sir Richard Temple: “Sikhism” though quiet 

and loyal at present, is one of those inflammable things of which a spark 

might kindle into a flame. Its idiosyncrasy and susceptibilities are thoroughly 

understoood by the Punjab authorities and its fidelity to the Empire is 

well preserved. It would stand proof against many trials and temptations, 

but if tried over much, it would re-assert itself and would assume the 

leadership of a national movement.” 99 This emphasizes two important 

realities of the day. First, that Sikhism was not an amorphous, ambiguous 

or confused and dispersed reality. Because of its ideology and a community 

having been welded into a society of religious heroes, and its’history of 

suffering and martyrdoms, under the severest trials, it was a society with 

the greatest potential. This is the assessment of an important erstwhile 

adversary. Secondly, his objective which is clear enough, is to see that the 

enormous poten tial does not get to be used or exploited against them. 

For that matter, while it was natural, as we shall see, for the adversary 

slowly to erode that potential, Temple suggests that it would be unwise 

unnecessarily to provoke the Sikhs regarding minor issues, lest the 

inflammable material should explode against them Accordingly, it would 

be naive for any historian not to understand the British policies and the 

course of events or ignore the assessment of the Chief British actors of 

the times. 

Sir Richard Temple’s expression of British policy is extremely

196 

revealing of the British mind. So far as the Sikhs were concerned they 

very well understood the natural and logical basis of that policy, namely, 

that while the British would not mind helping and placating the Sikhs on 

minor and non-essential issues, they would never tolerate any sufferance 

of their political interests. It is for this reason that both the Singh Sabhas 

had incorporated a clause in their constitution that they would not indulge 

in political matters. 

Political Suppression of the Sikhs: The last quarter of the nineteenth 

century was primarily devoted to reviving the strength of the community 

by educating them in their religion and tradition. The main emphasis was 

in social and religious fields. Having discreetly reconstructed these aspects 

of the Sikh society, slowly and surely the Singh Sabha Movement took up 

the political problems as well. With the formation of the Chief Khalsa 

Diwan in 1902, there came a significant change in the attitude of the 

Singh Sabha leaders towards politics. In the beginning of the twentieth 

century, the rising tide of political consciousness and the new born 

awareness arising from the regeneration brought about by the Singh Sabha 

movement, prompted the leaders of the Chief Khalsa Diwan to play 

their role in the political life of the province. They took it upon themselves 

“to safeguard the political rights of the Sikhs.’ 100 

The passing of the Universities Act, in 1904, which required greater 

official control over the management of the Khalsa College, Amritsar, 

made the Diwan leaders sceptical of British intentions. 101 Even the 

proposal of the Government to give an annual grant of rupees ten thousand 

to the College, which provided that the constitution of the managing 

body was to be main tined according to the wishes of the Government, 

was viewed to be fraught with mischief. In 1907, a fresh controversy 

erupted when the Government forced Sardar Dharam Singh, who was 

working in an honorary capacity as the Engineer-in-charge of the college, 

to be replaced by a European engineer, Major Hill. The College Managing 

Comittee dissociated itself from the activities of this Government 

appointed Engineer. This resulted in a direct confrontation between the 

College Governing Council and the Government. The Panjab, Lahore, in 

its issue dated May I, 1908, observed: “one can imagine the plight of 

students studying in Khalsa College whose management is going to be 

dominated by the Christians.” The government authorities handed over 

the management of the College to a nominated body with the

197 

Commissioner as Chairman, and later on June 10, 1908 forced a new 

constitution on the Governing Body. 102 

In November 1908, one member of the House of Commons 

raised a question in the British Parliament, whether the Government of 

India was aware of the fact that the new management of the Khalsa 

College had created resentment among the Sikhs and whether the 

Government was doing anything to remove this resentment. 103 Master 

Sunder Singh of Lyallpur wrote a book, Ki Khalsa Kalaj Sikhan Da Hai? in 

which he clearly stated that the government control over the Khalsa College 

had hurt the national pride of the Sikhs. He accused the British of having 

taken over the college in the same dishonest manner as it had annexed the 

Panjab. 104 D. Petric, Assistant Director, Criminal Intelligence mentions 

the sentiments of a Sikh student of Khalsa College, who after the Amritsar 

Educational Conference expressed himself as follows: 

“I am not afraid to die. All life is sacrifice. If I had been 

allowed to live, I might have done great things by 

sacrifice. Until the nation realises that, lives must be 

sacrificed, it will never come to anything.”l04.a 

Petrie also stated that a Khalsa College student had been openly advising 

people in his village not to serve British Government any more. 

The year of 1907 saw the beginning of a political agitation in the 

Punjab in connection with the colonisation Bill of 1907, which was 

considered to be unduly oppressive to the Punjabi agriculturists. The Bill 

was passed on the assumption that the land was the property of the 

Government and the farmer was a mere tenant. This was contrary to the 

prevailing notions of peasant-propristorship, continuing from the times 

of Banda Bahadur. The districts most affected by the new measure were 

Lyallpur and Rawalpindi, mainly colonised by the Sikhs. Some Smgh Sabha 

preachers (Updeshaks) like Jagat Singh Updeshak and Harbans Singh Attari 

were accused by the Government of instigating the agriculturists against 

the authorities. 105 The students of Khalsa College Amritsar also organised 

a protest demonstration against Sir Charles Rivaz, the Lt. Governor of 

the Punjab. 106 Agitation concerning the Colonisation Bill was an Important 

event. The chief strength of the Sikhs was a bold peasantry that 

possessed.proprietory rights in their lands. This was an 

important Sikh reform different from the Zimindari system in

198 

`most other parts of India. Under the Colonisation Bill, the British proposed 

that the peasant would not have the proprietory rights which they had 

during the Sikh rule. This was felt to be an important step to reduce the 

economic, social and political strength of the colonists, most of whom 

were Sikhs. They reacted against this contemplated erosion of their socioeconomic 

base. This reaction of the Sikh colonists is significant. Because 

it was based on the Sikh tradition and the fact that it was Banda Bahadur, 

who had introduced the system of peasant proprietorship and created 

among the masses a real consciousness of equality and the strength to 

defend their rights. 

The founding of the Sikh Educational Conference by the Chief 

Khalsa Diwan, in 1908, was also viewed by the Government to be fraught 

with political motives. 107 It was alleged that “the Conference was founded 

by the Chief Khalsa Diwan, which resenting Government’s interference 

in Khalsa College affairs in 1908, resolved to build a new Sikh College 

independent of Government control and devised in the Conference a 

means of collecting funds for this object.” 108 Though declared to be a 

non-political institution, the Sikh Educational Conference did provide a 

forum to the Singh Sabha leaders to express their views on the day-to-day 

affairs- religious, social, educational and even poli tical. Some of the 

speeches delivered at various conferences by the Chief Khalsa Diwan 

leaders were thought to be marked with strong political bias. At the third 

Sikh Educational Conference held at Amritsar in 1910, Professor Jodh 

Singh of the Khalsa College Amritsar was charged with giving ‘seditious 

talk’ in connection with the government system of education. 109 The British 

Government also began to view the activities of Sunder Singh Majithia, 

Tarlochan Singh (Pleader), Professor Jodh Singh and Harbans Singh Attari 

with suspicion. 110 The authorities also noticed that teachers like Nihal 

Singh, Sunder Singh, Niranjan Singh, Hari Singh Cheema and others were 

openly provoking the students against the British. 111 

It was said that in the course of their lectures these teachers quite 

often, referred to the days of Sikh ascendancy, their past glory and their 

present subjugation. 112 The students were so much excited that in 1910, 

when R.G. Wright took over as the Principal of the Khalsa College, they 

expressed their resentment against an Englishman’s appointment by pasting 

handbills on the College walls. 113 On another occasion, when Gopal 

Krishan Gokhale came

199 

to Amritsar, he was given a hearty welcome by the students of the Khalsa 

College. Their enthusiasm was reflected in the fact that they even unyoked 

his horses and themselves pulled his carriage ‘to the College where his 

lecture was listened with thunderous applause. 114 

The British acted in defiance of the Sikh sentiments and interests. 

The Minto-Morlay Reforms, of 1909, were discriminatory against the 

Sikhs. The Muslim minority was conceded separate representation and 

weightage in the States where they were a minority, as well as at the Centre. 

Similar consideration was not shown to the Sikhs in Punjab. This shows 

that the British were always niggardly, when it was a question of promoting 

Sikh political interests. Hardly they were given the same treatment as the 

Muslim minority. As the events are, they show that The British were 

carefully reluctant to adopt policies that would build the real strength of 

the community. 

The Khalsa Advocate, Amritsar, which was the chief spokesman of 

the Chief Khalsa Diwan, was administered warning three times, between 

1911 and 1922, for printing ‘objectionable’ matters’ . 115 Khalsa Samachar, 

Amritsar, in one of its issues, delivered the following message to the Sikhs 

on the occasion of Guru Gobind Singh’s birthday: “The founder of the 

Khalsa,.Guru Gobind Singh, fought against tyranny and oppression and 

expelled darkness. He sacrificed his life for the cause of justice and 

righteousness. O’ brave Khalsa? Wake up! Follow in the Guru’s footsteps. 

The country is again in the throes of tyranny and needs sacrifices.” 116 

It was not an easy task for the Singh Sabha to restore the values and 

objectives of the Sikh faith, in view of the stem posture adopted by the 

British at every step. The Arms Act of 1878, had placed a check on the 

rights of the Sikhs to wear Kirpan (Sword), which is one of the five 

essential symbols of the Sikh faith. The movement for emancipation of 

Kirpan was started in 1913, when Baba Nihal Singh was arrested for 

wearing a Kirpan. 117 

The incident sent a wave of indignation among the Sikhs. The Chief 

Khalsa Diwan and the Singh Sabha held hundreds of meetings. 

Consequently, an agitation was launched. After some Sikhs had suffered 

arrests, the Government exempted these Sikhsfrom. the Arms Act and 

allowed them the possession and the weanng of the Kirpan on June 25, 

1914. 118 In spite ofthe exemption for wearing Kirpan, the 

Sikh soldiers were still not allowed to wear It in the army. 

Three soldiers at Roorkee were punished and

200 

dismissed for wearing it. The Singh Sabhas held protest meetings but they 

were not taken back. Bhai Mangal Singh of the 34th Sikh Regiment, who 

was afterwards martyred at Nanakana Sahib,was dismissed and sentenced 

to one year’s rigorous imprisonment (R.I.) for the same fault. It was only 

after the First World War that the Government sanctioned the wearing of 

Kirpans by Sikh soldiers both in uniform and plain clothes, while serving 

on the active list. 119 McLeod seems unaware of the Kirpan agitation, when 

he states that the British required the “Sikh recruits to observe the full 

regalia of the orthodox Khalsa identity.” 120 Fox too suffers from a similar 

mis-conception, when he says that the Sikh idenitty and their religious 

values were subsidised by the British. 121 In this context N.G. Barrier’s 

opinion that the British played an important role in maintaining Sikh 

identity 122 looks so odd especially when it contradicts his own observations 

in defence of British neutrality towards the three Punjab communities. 

Want of indepth study has led these scholars completely to overlook the 

overwhelming evidence relating to the Singh Sabha struggle for their 

religious rights, whether it be the Anand Marriage Act (1909), or the right 

to wear Kirpan, or the control over the shrines and other institutions. The 

lack of clear perception has led them to make confusing and contradictory 

statements regarding the British motives and policies. The confusion arises 

mainly because the general policy of the British, after the Mutiny, was not 

to disturb the religious norms of the soldier. So far as the British policy in 

the state was concerned, it was obviously directed against the promotion 

of the Sikh ideological identity. 

The Chief Khalsa Diwan preachers consciously mingled politics 

with relgion in the course of their speeches. The tone of their speeches 

clearly reflected their dissatisfaction with British Government. Political 

and economic backwardness of the community was attributed to the loss 

of political power. The preachers quite often referred to the days of political 

ascendency of the Khalsa and tended to compare their political subjugation 

with the bitter experiences of the past under the Mughals. The preachers 

argued that the Sikhs suffered under the Mughals because of the tyranny 

of the rulers. As a corollary, the responsibility for the then existing state 

of affairs was attributed to the British. The Government began to suspect 

the motives and designs of the Singh Sabha preachers. 123 Many cases were 

reported to the Government in which Sikh preachers were found instigating

201 

the people against the Government. 124 In spite of their handicaps, in the 

earlier stages, the Singh Sabha parcharaks (preachers), through their 

emphasis on religion, were able to make successful appeal to the Sikh 

mind and to awaken the Sikh consciousness to its religio-political entity. 

The organisation of festivals, prayer-meetings, Nagar Kirtan (religious 

processions) and Kavi Samelans (Religio-poetical recitations) was attempted 

to escape the notice of the intelligence authorities who normally prohibited 

political activities and gatherings. This role of the Singh Sabha preachers 

in awakening the Sikh masses from religion to politics is important. A 

contemporary Government report noted: “The Chief Khalsa Diwan keeps 

a staff of paid preachers (Updeshaks) who stamp the country and lecture 

on various topics- social, educational, religious, political, and more often 

than not, all four are inextricably intermingled.” 125 

Sikh militancy assued alarming Rroportions with the Rikhabganj 

Gurdawara affair in 1913. 126 The Government unthinkingly acquired some 

land attached to the Gurdwara and demolished its outer wall so that a 

road could be builtto the nearbls Secretariat. 127 “Bitter agitation arose 

among the Sikh masses.” 128 The Sikhs agitated and threatened to launch a 

Morcha but it was abandoned because of the First World War. 129 

It is well known that the translation of the Sikh scripture, which 

the British had commissioned the Christian misssionary, Dr. Trumpp, to 

undertake was full of derogatory references to the Sikh Gurus and was 

offesnsive to the Sikh sentiments. On the other hand, scholars like J.D. 

Cunnigham, Evans Bell, and John Sullivan had to suffer extreme penalities 

of dismissal from service for writing honest accounts, but what 

Government considered to be pro-Sikh. M.A. Macauliffe, who produced 

a monumental work on Sikh religion in six volumes also did not find 

favour with the British and was not given the benefits and advantages 

enjoyed by Dr.Trumpp, who wrote against the Sikhs. 

Rebellion in Punjab:- The failure of the Government to protect the 

rights of the Sikh immigrants living in Canada and America, who were the 

victims of racial discrimination, led to the formation of a revolutionary 

organisation known as the Hindustan Ghadr Party., The object of the 

Ghadr Party was to spread an armed rebellion and free India 

from the foreign yoke. 130 War was considered a good 

opportunity to cause the rebellion, especially because 

early British reverses involving large scale casualities of

202 

the Sikh soldiers from the rural areas seemed to the Ghadrites a ripe stage 

for achieving their objective. 131 

Ghadr Party was virtually a Sikh organisation and Sohan Singh 

Bhakna was its President. These persons came to Punjab and started their 

subversive activities both in rural central Punjab and among the Sikh 

solidiery. By the end of 1914, the Ghadrites succeeded in sending one 

thousand revolutionaries to India out of the total membership of ten 

thousand. Some of the Singh Sabhas, were said to be sympathetic to the 

Ghadrites, Bhai Takhat Singh entertained the delegates of the Ghadr Party 

when they visited Ferozepur. Daljit Singh, assistant editor of the Punjabi 

Bhain, a monthly publication of the Sikh Kanya Maha Vidyala, Ferozepur, 

joined the Ghadrites and became a Secretari of Baba Gurdit Singh, leader 

of the Kama Gata Maru affair. 132 The methods to be employed by the 

delegates (of the Ghadr Party) in pushing campaign in India appeared to 

have been discussed in the weekly meetings of the Singh Sabha at 

Lahore……….A member of the Singh Sabha in advocating these measures 

spoke of creating a spirit of awakening among Hindus and Sikhs.” 133 

However, the Government succeeded in crushing the rebellion before it 

could assume bigger dimensions. Before the appointed date for large scale 

rebellion in the army or the state could be started, information leaked out 

at Lahore. A wide spread hunt for the rebels in the state was made and 

scores were hanged and sent to transportation for life. 

The Ghadrites to their chagrin, discovered that the Congress 

leaders were more sympathetic to the British rather than to the Ghadrite 

revolutionaries. 134 Tilak, the so called ‘militant’ Congressite had expressed 

his strong disapproval of the activities of the Ghadrites. Gokhale is said 

to have openly told the Viceroy that he would like the British to extend 

their stay in India. 135 There is no denying the fact that the Ghadr Movement 

received a set-back on account of lack of support from the Congress 

leadership and their persecution evoked no sympathy from these quarters. 

This is an important political event which influenced the Sikhs and their 

psyche. For Sikh independence Kartar Singh Sarabha is as great a hero as, 

if not greater than, Bhagat Singh. In his memory the first statue was raised 

in Ludhiana, though statues of other heroes, including of Bhagat Singh, 

were raised much later. 

In this regard three things are extremely significant. The rebellion 

was by and large a Sikh affair and took place mostly in

203 

rural Punjab. Nothing of this sort or extent appeared in the rest of the 

country. Ninety per cent of the participants and the sufferers were Sikhs. 

The second point is that two of the noted Sikh mystics, Baba Wasakha 

Singh and Bhai Randhir Singh were the participants, who were sent to 

Andamans as life convicts. 

This indicates that in Sikhism there is a basic and inalienable 

ideological link between religion and righteous political activity. Third, it 

is noteworthy that while Sikh masses were politically awakened to sustain 

a rebellion, persons who later became political leaders of the Congress or 

Indian independence were whole-heartedly cooperating with the British 

war effort during this period, and the idea of liberation was beyond their 

ken, if not foreign to them. 

Here it is relevant to quote the confessional statement of Mewa 

Singh in 1914 who had eliminated William Hopkinson recruited from 

India for suppressing a ferment among Canadian Sikhs and whose agent 

Bela Singh had murdered two Sikhs in the Gurdawara. Prior to his 

execution, he stated; “My religion does not teach me to bear enmity with 

anybody, no matter what class, creed or order he belongs to, nor had I any 

enmity with Hopkinson. I heard tha t he was suppressing my poor people 

very much……I being a staunch Sikh-could no longer bear to see the 

wrong done both to my innocent countrymen and the Dominion of 

Canada...And I, performing the duty of a true Sikh and remembering the 

name of God, will proceed towards the scaffold with the same amount of 

pleasure as the hungry babe does towards its mother. I shall have the rope 

around my neck thinking it to be a rosary of God’s name….” 136 

Now, who had taught Mewa Singh an ordinary Sikh coming from 

a remote Punjab village and migrating to Canada for earning his living, an 

essential principle of the Sikh religion, namely, to react against social 

injustice. It would be naive to say that Mewa Singh or the Ghadrites were 

the product of British policy. What the Singh Sabha did was to revive and 

invoke the teachings, training and traditions of the Gurus. For, the history 

of Sikhism and other whole-life religions clearly demonstrates that it is 

the blood of the martyrs that alone can create a healthy and sound moral 

conditioning of the masses and not any artifical administrative attempts 

in pursuance of colonial interests. 

When the War came to an end in 1918, the Sikhs launched a 

strong agitation under the leadership of Harchand Singh of

204 

Lyallpur and Sardul Singh Caveeshar. They appealed to the Sikhs to 

volunteer themselves for the Shaheedee Jatha (band of martyrs) and to join 

a march to Delhi to re-erect the demolished wall of the Gurdwara Rakab 

Ganj. However, the timely intervention of Maharaja Ripudaman Singh 

of Nabha saved the situation from getting worse. The Government 

acceded to the Sikh demand by restoring the Gurdwara wall. 137 

The tragedy of Budge Budge Ghat came as a bolt from the blue 

for the Sikhs. A group of Sikh immigrants returning from Canada became 

the victims of the British high-handedness. Eighteen men were killed 

and another twenty five were injured. 138 However, Gurdit Singh, their 

leader, along with twenty eight of his companions escaped. The rest were 

rounded up and sent to Punjab, where over two hundred of them were 

interned under the Ingress Ordinance. This incident was universally 

condemned and the Sikh public opinion was greatly mobilised against the 

British. “Several Sikh papers notably the Khalsa Akhbar (of Harchand 

Singh of Lyallpur) and Sher-i-Punjab, both started in 1914, attacked the 

Government in connection with the Budge Budge Ghat incident.:” 139 

Sardul Singh Caveeshar an important contemporary writes, “The 

Kamagata Maru tragedy at Budge Budge was another cause of 

estrangement between the Sikhs and the Government. Through the 

foolishness of some police officers, a tragedy was enacted at Budge Budge 

that threw the whole of India into consternation.... The subsequent ruthless 

treatment of the returned emigrants by Sir Michael O’ Dwyer did not 

allow the sore to heal; and the injustice done to India and the Sikhs by the 

Canadian Government became a permanent cause of grievance against 

the British.” 140 

Thus the post-war policy of the British resulting in such like 

incidents, created both resentment and anger among the Sikhs in Punjab. 

Caveeshar observes; ‘’The Sikhs were in this attitude of mind, when they 

were thrown in the vortex of Martial Law as a consequence of agitation 

against the Rowlatt Act.” 141 

The Sikh mind was seriously disturbed. Agitation against the 

Rowlatt Act started while the Sikh feelings were pent up. This 

aggravated the Sikh feelings in the Central Punjab, who 

were already aggrieved at the treatment of the 

Canadian Government and the returned immigrants from there at Budge 

Bhdge Ghat. This led to violent reaction as reported in the Government 

communique: ‘’The last communique issued brought the history of

205 

events in Lahore and Amritsar as then known down to the afternoon of 

the 12th of April (1919). The information in the possession of 

Government was not complete at the time of its issue. The morning train 

from Ferozepur on the 12th was held up outside Kasur Station and looted 

by a mob of about 1,000; of whom many were armed with lathis. Two 

Europeans, honorary Lieutenant Selby of the Ordnance and Sergeant 

Mostyn, R.A., were killed and another was injured. After looting the train 

and doing a great deal of damage in the Station, the crowd burnt the post 

office and attacked the Tehsil. Here, however, they were driven off by 

the police with a loss of one killed and about six wounded. Some arrests 

were made. Several stations on the Kasur and Amritsar line were attacked 

the same day. Khem Karan station was looted and treasury at Tarn Taran 

was assaulted unsuccessfully. As the result of these disturbances it was 

decided to march a movable column with a gun from Kasur through the 

Mdjha to Amritsar. The column started on the morning of Sunday, the 

13th, and arrived at Khem Karan. 

On Sunday, the 13th, the Prevention of Seditions Meetings Act, 

1911, was applied to the districts of Lahore and Amritsar which were 

declared to be proclaimed areas under the Act. The result of this action is 

to make it illegal to hold, without permission, a public meeting for the 

furtherance or discussion of any subject likely to cause disturbance or 

public excitement without permission.” 142 

The events mentioned above clearly explain why unlike in the 

rest of the country, the agitation against the Rowlatt Act took a serious 

rebellious trend in the central districts of Punjab where the Sikh population 

was predominant. This also explains why despite the prohibitory order in 

the districts of Lahore and Amritsar, thousands of Sikhs came to Amritsar 

on the Baisakhi and later thronged at the Jallianwala Bagh in defiance of 

the local order banning the holding of any meeting in the dty. That this 

defiant agitation was predominantly a rural Sikh reaction is evident from 

the fact that out of the total casualities of 1300 more than sixty per cent 

were Sikhs, when it is well known that Sikh population in the City was 

just marginal. 143 

An important fact which has often been ignored is that in Punjab 

most agitations have been mass upsurges and movements unlike 

hose in the rest of India, where those have generally been 

either among the literate classes or in the urban areas. In Punjab

206 

since the Ghadr rebellion, the trial and sentences of death and transportation 

of life to Ghadrites, following it, and the events preceding and following 

the Budge Budge Ghat tragedy, were a chain of occurances that never 

allowed the enlivened and agitated Sikh spirit to rest in peace. From the 

time of the Ghadar rebellion upto tne Jallianwala Bagh Firing, the Sikh 

Punjab had remained in continuous ferment. As against it, the position in 

the rest of India had been very different, and one fact alone indicates the 

climate, namely, that Mahatma Gandhi had earned during that period two 

Medals, Kaiser i-Hind and Zulu War Meda1. 144 As stated already, the 

Congress leaders like Gokhale, Tilak and Lajpat Rai were sympathetic to 

the British and condemned the Ghadrite revolutionaries, whose activities, 

they openly disapproved. 145 

The Ghadr unrest in central rural Punjab leading to the times of 

Sikh gathering at Jallianwala Bagh and the oppression indulged by the 

British administration in the rural Punjab are primarily and fundamentally 

a continuous episode in the Sikh struggle for independence. In fact, it is 

only incidentally a part of the Indian political movement which till then 

was living in a cooperative mood and enjoying the benefits of the Raj. 

Much less had it gained any momentum or level to make such a 

confrontation and suffer large-scale oppression. Another fact which 

indicates the Sikh character of the agitation is that it was G.A. Wathen, 

the Principal of the premier Sikh educational institution in Punjab, who 

felt so deeply concerned at the inhuman activities of General Dyer that 

he ran on a motor-cycle from Amritsar to Lahore and woke up Governor 

O’Dwyer to request him not to approve Dyer’s action.144 It is very relevant 

and important to understand the complexion of events in Punjab. The 

fact is that the pre-Jallianwala Bagh rebellion was a Sikh affair in the 

Punjab and for that matter the reaction and the repression perpetrated by 

Dyer and O’Dwyer were directed against the Sikhs. K.F. Rustamji writes: 

‘’The people of Punjab are a vibrant, vigorous lot. . .like all brave, warlike 

races they are ready for a fight whenever they feel they have been illtreated 

or misled. The Punjabis who participated in satyagraha and violence 

against the British were so strong in the vanguard that the majority of the 

British in India felt at that time that making an example of them at 

Jallianwala Bagh was necessary. The wisest believed that in the process 

general Dyer was reckless and overdid it. Few saw it as a setback to British 

rule. The British never recovered from the effects of that mistake till the 

end”.144-a That explains how the rural mind

207 

of Udham Singh remained deeply agitated and aggrieved to prompt him 

to act against O’Dwyer, the person responsible for the Punjab tragedies 

of the period. Here it is also significant to state that the basic inspiration 

that sustained or inspired Udham Singh to attack O’Dwyer was religious. 

This is also evidenced by his letters and his demand for ‘Gutka’, the Sikh 

prayer Book of Gurbani. 147 It is also relevant in this connection, that 

whereas the non-Sikh Indian communities in U.K. disowned him, he was 

supported only by the Sikhs of a Gurdwara of West London. 148 

The above narration of facts shows that following the Singh Sabha 

movement side by side with the religious awakening, the British measures 

against political awakening became increasingly open and firm. It is also 

clear that the British had always been vigilant in this regard and never 

failed to suppress, to the extent possible, the growth of Sikh political 

consciousness. The important fact is that under the Sikh ideology religious 

consciousness, socio-political consciousness and consequent responsibility 

and reaction go hand in hand. The net result was that in 1919 the Sikh 

religious and socio-political consciousness had reached, because of its 

tradition and history, a distinctly higher level of commitment and activity 

than among the people in other parts of the country. This is clearly borne 

from a contemporary Government Report: “the Home Rule Agitation 

and Rowlatt Bills exercised an undesirable effect on the whole press. The 

Sikh press ventilated petty grievances that the Government wasunmindful 

of the true interests of the Sikhs.” 149 Thus, it is this what explains the role 

of the Sikhs in the Ghadr revolution and that of Mewa Singh in Canada. 

Significant as it is, at that time the Indian political leaders had mostly been 

cooperating with the British war efforts. This clearly explains, as we have 

seen, that when Gandhi after giving up his role of cooperation during the 

War, gave the call against the Rowlet Bills, the response and reaction in 

Punjab were urgent and significant compared to such reaction in parts of 

the country where the call had been given. For the Sikhs, it was only a 

continuation of the socio-political struggle which the Singh Sabha had 

initiated. 

The brutal massacre of Jallianwala Bagh in 1919, in which 

hundreds of Sikhs were killed and wounded, added fuel to the fire. After 

the Singh Sabha Movement had helped the Sikhs to regain their strength 

and cohesion, the Sikhs felt that it was time they cleared their Gurdwaras 

from the non-Sikh Mahants and the adverse influences which had the 

clear backing of the British. So

208 

far as the political consciousness is concerned, it has always been a part 

of the Sikh ethos, as has been evidenced by the Kuka and the Ghadr 

Movements. With the Singh Sabha, as we shall see, it was only a question 

of tactical move when they for some decades remained quiet on the political 

front. In order to remove the confusion and despondency, naturally 

prevalent after annexation, they wanted first to rebuild their socioreligiouscohesion. 

Tempers rose very high when the Manager and priests 

of the Darbar Sahib condemned the Kamagata Maru and Ghadrite Sikhs 

at the Akal Takhat. Later on, they presented a robe of honour to Brigadier 

General Dyer, who was responsible for the Jallianwala Bagh massacre. 150 

It was such suicidal policies of the British that Principal Wathen had 

rushed to stop. As a saying goes, it is human blunders that sometimes 

change history. During these days, there spread an unfounded rumour 

among the Sikh masses, as well as the Sikhs in the British Indian army, 

that since the Sikhs ware involved in the Anti-Rowlatt Act agitation and 

had used the Golden Temple complex as their hide out, the British 

authorities had resorted to aerial bombardment of the Golden Temple. 151 

This infuriated Sikhs all over Punjab. To quell this unrest the army took 

over the administration, and whatever vestiges of a civilised government 

had remained also vanished. The British Government’s actions at Amritsar 

set the tone of “Dyerachy” for the rest of the provice in which the Sikhs 

were the worst sufferers of the ruthless repression and suppression carried 

on by the Government. Many Sikh villages were subjected to bombing 

and machine-gunning from the air; one of the targets successfully hit was 

the Khalsa High School at Gujranwala, where many people were killed 

and wounded. 152 In the seven weeks that the Punjab was administered by 

martial law nearly 1200 were killed and at least 3600 were wounded. 153 

All this brutal repression came as a shock to the Sikh masses. Winston 

Churchill made the most scathing criticism of General Dyer’s action. He 

described it as “an episode which appeared to be without parallel in the 

modern history of the British Empire...an extraordinary event, a monstrous 

event, an event which stood in singular and sinsiter isolation”. 154 

In this context and the known misuse of the Gurdwaras, the Sikhs 

became acutely conscious that they could no longer afford to permit 

their own sacred shrines to become places of corruption, 

and to be used to destroy the very roots and the sap that in history

209 

had given them unbelievable strength and vigour. Thereafter started the 

Gurdwara reform movement and the peacefully organised confrontation 

with the British. For, the cover had been lifted and it had become clear 

that behind the priests and the Mahants stood the strength and might of 

the British. Consequently and logically as a second important step, the 

Sikhs did the greatest mobilisation against the Government for regaining 

the control of their Gurdwaras from the corrupt hands. 

The Chief Khalsa Diwan had, no doubt, formed a sub-committee 

to suggest ways and means to reform the Gurdwaras but it could not take 

effective measures owing to the stiff opposition of the Mahants and Pujaris 

who enjoyed the support and protection of the Government. In 1919, the 

Central Sikh League was established at Amritsar with a view to protecting 

the political interests of the Sikhs. 155 The League passed a resolution of 

non-cooperation with the British Government in October, 1919, its 

meeting was attended by Harbans Singh Attari, Baba Kharak Singh and 

Master Tara Singh. In 1920 the Shiromani Gurd wara Parbandhak 

Committee was established and undertook to ‘take over’ all the Shrines 

including the Darbar Sahib. 156 The establishment of this committee brought 

the issues to a wider notice. Thus “a movement which was religious in 

origin rapidly acquired a political character.” 157 The Sikhs now began to 

realize that a clash with the Government was inevitable in order to secure 

justice and safeguard their interests. 

Thus the Singh Sabha movement, after the period of 

reconstruction, naturally, gave birth to the Akali movement which was 

equally motivated by religious as well as political considerations. The 

following remarks of V.M. Smith, a contemporary observer, are 

illuminating in this respect: “All Sikh traditions, whether national or 

religious, are martial, in times of political excitement the militant spirit 

reasserts itself.” 158 It was, therefore, natural that at that stage of history, 

the Sikhs should come ,into direct clash with the British policies which, as 

we have expalined earlier, were hostile to their political and ideological 

mterests. 

Conclusion: The above narration of events shows that two aspects 

of the British policy towards the Sikhs have been clear and consistent, 

namely - their comparative political suppression as evidenced in the 

Minto-Morley (1909) and Montague-Chelmsford Reforms (1919) and the 

Sikh ideological erosion by a studied

210 

patronage of Hinduised Mahants and Pujaris and control of their shrines 

through Government nominated Managers. 

The Ghadr Rebellion under the Presidentship of Sohan Singh 

Bhakna and the leadership of religiously oriented Ghadrite Babas and the 

martyrdoms of Kartar Singh Sarabha and his associates had politically 

inflamed the Sikhs in Punjab. Extremely painful was the fact that the 

Government had managed to have disowned and declared persons of the 

religious eminance of Baba Wasakha Singh and Bhai Randhir Singh of 

the Ghadr Movement as non-Sikhs by a Sarbrah (custodian appointed by 

the Government) of the Golden Temple. Because of the Ghadr Rebellion, 

suppression of the Sikhs continued to be severe during the War. These 

events, however, made it evident that a political struggle with the British 

with the dual objective of political freedom and removal of Government 

control over Sikh Gurdwaras would become inevitable. It was clear that 

more than any other area in the country, the Sikhs in Punjab were ready 

for a confrontation with the British. 

We have already recorded that Sikh religious ethos is both the 

foundation and the strength of their urges and aspirations for sociopoliticalliberty. 

The Sikh shrines, particularly the Oarbar Sahib, Amritsar, 

continues since the times of the Gurus to be the fount of Sikh power and 

inspiration. 

Under the leadership of the Akalis, the Sikhs came into an open 

clash with the Government, first for the liberation of their shrines and 

then for the liberation of their motherland. The struggle for the liberation 

of their shrines has’ been given the appella tion Third Sikh War. The two 

Anglo-Sikh Wars had already been fought in the middle of the last century. 

In the Third Sikh War the stakes were the freedom of their Gurdwaras 

and their religion. It was fought on the basis and strength of their religious 

identity and institutions. For the Sikh the freedom of his religion and the 

freedom of his motherland are synonymous. This is not a recent or a postfacto 

interpretation of Sikh religion. We record below the actual 

understanding of a contemporary who partook in the Sikh struggle. Sardul 

Singh Caveeshar writes, “A Sikh wants to fight his country’s battles from 

the vantage ground of his religion. Being of a religious trend of mind, he 

finds everything subordinate to his Dharma; politics is nothing for him but 

a promising child of religion. A Sikh has not yet developed that fine sense 

of doubtful value that divides life into water - tight compartments and 

makes of religion in the West something different from one’s social and

211 

political life. For the Sikh politics and religion are one. He wants the freedom 

of his religion, he wants the freedom of his country, but he knows that he 

cannot have one without the other. If religion is safe, he is sure to get 

back, soon or late, the freedom of the country. In fact he regards religion 

as the strong post, from which one should start to get back the lost liberty, 

as, in his opinion, the religious spirit, alone can keep the freedom of a 

country safe when once that has been won.” 159 

Still among scholars who talk of the British promotion of the 

Khalsa identity, there is a clear lack of understanding of the Sikh ideology, 

the realities of the situation, Sikh history and the general historical 

perspective. As already explained the Sikh ideology laid down by Guru 

Nanak and the Guru Granth involvesa combination of the spiritual and 

the empirical elements of life. The history of Islam and Judaism that 

make similar ideological combination furnishes very helpful analogies. it 

is, therefore, sheer misinterpretation, misrepresentation or 

misunderstanding of the Sikh ideology to talk of two Sikh identities, 

namely, the Khalsa and the Nanakpanthis. Scholars drawn from pacifist 

or dichotomous religions, involving divorce between religious and empirical 

lives and recommending Sanyas, on...the one hand, and Varna Ashram 

Dharma, on the other hand, not only misunderstand the unity of the Sikh 

doctrine but tend sometimes to measure the Sikh ideology and history by 

the standards of their own religions. Often such basically conditioned 

vision is inclined not to take an objective or over-all view. We have made 

it very clear how Guru Gobind Singh’s creation of the Khalsa was the 

epitome of Guru Nanak’s mission and how Khalsa and Nanakpanthis 

were synonymous terms and were taken and treated as such by the Muslim 

rulers, their contemporaries or persecutors. 

It is also important that the first coin struck by Banda Singh 

Bahadur in 1765 clearly recognises his victory to be due to the grace of 

the sword of Guru Nanak. Similarly the coin of Ranjit Singh does not 

mention any particular person or king except Guru Nanak as the true 

emperor of both the worlds, spiritual and empirical. Contemporary Mufti- 

Ali-ud-Din, author of ‘Ibrat Nama’, makes a significant statement, about 

Sikh identity of the first half of the nineteenth century, “the Sikhs as belonging 

to a class highly conscious of the need of shaking off meaningless rituals 

that the Brahmins had fostered on the Hindu society They observed 

no formalities in the matter of dress and social intercourse also.

212 

Ram-Ram and Salam had given place to Waheguru Ji Ki Fateh. They had also 

done away with the Brahmanic practice of reading the Vedas, the Shastras 

and the Puranas and recited only Guru’s Bani. The morning prayer 

consisted of the recitation of the Japji and the Sukhmani. They were 

particularly careful of their personal cleanliness and purity. A regular daily 

bath before offering prayers was considered essential but there were 

sometimes deviations and those who preferred to wash their mouth, hands 

and feet alone were permitted to do so and the practice was known as 

panjishruma. Ardas was an indispensable and prominent feature of their 

prayers. It was through Ardas that the Sikhs solicited help from the Almighty 

for the efficient performance of their daily life and duties.” 160 

The Sikh identity was founded by Guru Nanak, it was nurtured 

by the subsequent Gurus. When mature, the final seal in the form of the 

Amrit ceremony was put on it by the Tenth Master. The Sikh Gurus 

themselves have been emphasising the unity of the Sikh doctrine. This is 

evidenced by the use of word ‘Nanak’ in every hymn of the Gurus in the 

Guru Granth. Thus, ideologically, scripturally, traditionally and in the eyes 

of the community and its opponents, there was only one identity, namely, 

the followers of the Gurus. The history of the struggle and persecution in 

the 18th century and the way the companions of Banda got beheaded at 

Delhi make for singularity of identity and not for its plurality. Identitites 

are built by the ideology, motivation, the blood of the martyrs, tradition, 

suffering and sacrifice and not by the juxtaposition of material facts or by 

verbal argumentation. Therefore, the two components that constitute Sikh 

identity, namely, Sikh ideology and the Sikh history during the time of 

Gurus and the periods of their structuring, have to be taken into view 

and not just ignored. That is why the Singh Sabha leadership used Gurbani 

and the Sikh history, especially the armed resistance to the Mughals, as a 

rallying symbol for the Sikh struggle. 

The second factor is the reality of the situation in the post-annexation 

(1849) period. The Khalsa army, its strength and power had been annihilated. 

The British in power were extremely conscious of the Sikh capacity for 

resurgence and they sought to ensure in every manner, as indicated earlier, to 

see that there was no political uprising in the State. After the 1857 

experience they were doubly conscious and particularly vigilant 

to take all measures against any sign of political unrest or uprising. This is

213 

clear from the known tyrannical manner in which the minor Namdhari 

uprising was dealt with. As we have noted the British allowed, under the 

protection of their wings, free play to the Christian missionaries to attack 

the identity and ideology of the Sikh religion, its history and institutions. 

These missions were located in the heart of Sikh areas like Batala. The 

purpose and work of these misssions are well known. The journalistic 

work of McLeod, who has for long years been a functionary of the Batala 

Christian Centre can be taken to be typically representative and revealing 

of the aims and objectives of such Centres. Further, in order to destroy 

the very roots of Sikhism, the British gave charge of Sikh Shrines to 

Hinduised Managers, Mahants or Pujaris, who did their best to suppress 

Sikh practices and tradition and instead to introduce Hindu ways and 

customs. For example, whereas Jassa Singh, the head of Sikh leadership, 

when he struck the coin after his victory of Lahore in 1761, felt no stigme 

in calling himself a Kalal, a low Shudra in the Hindu caste hierarchy, the 

Mahants and Pujaris introduced the practice that Mazhbi Sikhs would not 

be given Parshad at Darbar Sahib, Amritsar, even though Mazhabi Sikhs 

formed a part of Ranjit Singh’ sarmy .In short, had Jassa Singh been alive 

in the British period, he would have been debarred from being regarded as 

a Sikh to be given Parshad at Darbar Sahib, Amritsar. 

This was the state of affairs after the annexation which the leaders 

of the Singh Sabha had to battle against. Therefore, they decided, and 

very wisely, that it would be suicidal to fight on two fronts, namely, the 

political front and the socio-religions front. Here it is necessary to mention 

that the first step the Sikhs took, after they had revived the religious 

understanding, cohesion and consciousness of the community and dispelled 

its sense and shock of the loss of empire, was to free the Gurdwaras from 

the Mahants and Pujaris. And it is well known that the agitation which was 

only directed against these private priests (Mahants anj Pujaris) involved 

the Sikhs in confrontation with the Government which was ,really the 

power behind them and was interested in their continuance as the 

instruments of erosion of the religious base, the real strength, of the 

community.Thus, the realities of the situation were such that if the Sikhs 

had tried to fight on both the fronts failure would have been inevitable. It 

speaks volumes for their wisdom that they first strengthened their ideological 

understanding and foundation. And in this they succeeded to a

214 

large, extent. 

Thirdly, these scholars also ignore the general historical perspective. 

For example, we refer here to the period of Jewish history for centuries 

after AD. 70, when consequent to the fall of Jerusalem and the total 

annihiliation of the political elite and the Temple by the Romans, started 

the intensive work of religious reconstruction. These religious leaders 

represented the community both in the religious and the political spheres, 

this period of scholars and Rabbis, historian, Cecil Roth, calls the work 

and time of ‘The Rule of the Wisest.’ Ideologically, Judaism too combines 

the spiritual life with the empirical life of man. After AD. 70 it was sociopolitically 

a very lean period of Jewish history. It was a time when “Jerusalem, 

and the Temple, lay in ruins, and their rebuilding was forbidden... It is true 

that the people as a whole sat in mouring for those who had fallen in the 

War, and for the glory that was gone from Israel... The spokesman of the 

Jewish people had hitherto been the rulers of the house of Herod; but the 

last male representative of that family Herod Agrippa II, was estranged 

from his people and had not much longer to live. The High Priest had 

been hardly less prominent but with the destruction of the Temple, the 

High Priesthood itself had come to an end. But, even, before the fall of 

Jerusalem, there had been a category which enjoyed almost equal, if not 

superior consideration. The Rabbis- the scholars who expounded the Holy 

Writ- had always been looked up to by the people with reverence. Now, 

there was no one else to revere. It happened that, before Jerusalem fell, 

one of the outstanding scholars of his generation, Johanan ben Zakkai, 

had managed to escape from the city-according to legend, in a coffin 

borne by his disciples. Titus had permitted him to settle in the township 

of Jabneh (Jamnia), on the coast near Jaffa, used as a concentration camp, 

where he opened a school for the study and exposition of the traditional 

lore. The most eminent of contemporary scholars gathered around him 

there. The Sanhedrin, fonnerly the highest Council of State, became 

reconstituted from members chosen for their erudition rather than for 

political influence or wealth. During the subsequent long period it is this 

syndrome constituted of scholarly persons that steered the Jewish people 

to safety over a period of three and a half centuries. With this scholarly 

group, its president or Nasi slowly acquired semi-official status and 

in due course came to be recognised as the representative 

of the Jewish people in its relations with the Roman

215 

authorities. With the fall of Temple, the Sadducees, who were the religious 

heads and whose existence was bound up with the essential Temple worship 

lost their separate identity or influence. The Pharisee scholars were left 

masters of the field. These persons developed the educational system and 

became the centres of local life everywhere. These scholars even went on 

missions to Rome discharging duties pertaining to political matters.as well. 

In A.D. 115 the work of reconstruction was interrupted by a terrible 

catastrophe. The reason was a political revolt which was put down with 

an excess of cruelty and bloodshed. Anotherinsurrection took place in 

AD. 82. This too was mercilessly suppressed followed by intense religious 

persecution. A harrow was drawn over the site of Jerusalem, and a new 

city erected, under the name Aelia Capitolina, into which no Jew was 

allowed to set foot save once a year, when they were suffered to ‘buy their 

tears’ at the Temple site.” 161 

The lessons of this period of Jewish history are too obvious to be 

ignored, by any perceptive historian. When a community suffers political 

defeat, respite for reconstructions is essential; and during this period the 

fruitful work has to be a stress on ideology, tradition and the rebuilding of 

morale and the personality of the community. It involves fight only on 

one front, namely the religious, the socio-cultural and the educational. 

Emotional or sporadic political revolts during such a lean period are suicidal 

and become catastrophic and may put the clock of regeneration back. 

That is why Roth calls this period of reconstruction by the scholars, Rubbis 

and others the “Rule of the Wisest”. No historian dubs these Jewish 

religious scholars as stooges or loyalists of the Romans or creation of 

Roman rulers; nor does any historian ignore centuries of earlier Jewish 

history and calls the Jewish cohesion and identity revived by these scholars 

to be the work or creation at the instance of the Roman masters. 

Like the efforts of the Jewish Rabbis and scholars, the work of 

Singh Sabha scholars is so strikingly reconscrutive of the life of the Sikh 

community tha t it would be sheer prejudice and distortion to call them 

the tools or creation of the British Masters. Any course of revival, political 

or military, other than the one taken by Singh Sabhaites would have been 

suicidal. Politically and militarily the British were too strong to be taken on 

directly. Just as the catastrophic result of the two Jewish rebellions crushed 

by the Romans after the fall of the Temple and Jerusalem, we are well

216 

aware of the dismal fate of the sporadic Kuka uprising and the unorganised 

plans of the Sandhawalia group that were speedily destroyed with a heavy 

hand. The British power in India then was too well entrenched and alert 

to be shaken by such flee bites. Considering the work and achievements 

of the Singh Sabha and the Akali Movements from 1873 onwards, it is 

evident that the Singh Sabhaites and the later Sikh leaders had been 

politically more wise, alert and conscious than the urban leaders of the 

Congress like Gokhale and Tilak. In fact, the Congress leaders, it is well 

known, later only made use of the Sikh struggle, which in its consistency 

and mass base had taken a clear lead over the subsequent Congress 

movement. This is also evident from the fact that the Ghadrites and other 

heroes of the struggle whom these leaders had condemned were later 

accepted as the martyrs of the Indian freedom movement. And yet no 

one dubs the Congress leaders as the creation of the British. 

Our statement about the Sikh ideology and the entire narration 

of events from the annexation of Punjab to the start of the Third Sikh 

War, the Gurdwara Reform Movement, makes a number of issues 

extremely explicit. The Sikh World view is different from the systems of 

dichotomous, pacifist, or salvation religions. The Gurus embodied their 

thesis in the Guru Granth and structured the Sikh Panth and its institutions 

during a period of over two hundred years. The creation of the Khalsa by 

the Tenth Master and its struggle during the eighteenth century is a part 

of its glorious tradition and its history. We have recounted that after 

annexation two historical forces were working with fixed directions and 

objectives. The British, as explained, were clear about their political interests 

and in a studied manner used all means to serve them. For obvious reasons, 

one of their aims was to erode the religious base of the Sikhs, which gave 

them their power and vigour. They were fully aware of the potential of 

their erstwhile adversaries, and while they were keen to divert their energies 

to other ends, they were equally careful to ensure that the Sikhs were 

neither unnecessarily provoked nor allowed to regenerate or develop their 

socio-political strength. 

Our analysis shows that the objectives which the British 

government, on the one hand, and the Singh Sabhaites, on the other hand, 

continued to pursue were clearly divergent. This made an ultimate clash 

between them inevitable. It also explains why the Sikh mass struggle for 

liberation started much earlier than such an

217 

urge in the rest of the country. But the scholars who assume a community 

of interests and objectives between the British and the Sikhs simply fail 

to suggest, much less explain, why the clash and the Third Sikh War took 

place and why it happened in Punjab much earlier than elsewhere. 

On the other hand, the Singh Sabhaites knew full well that their 

only source of inspiration, regeneration and strength was to draw upon 

their religion, tradition and history. As it is, the course they were to traverse, 

the lines on which they were to work and the institutions which were to 

be revived, stood clearly defined and chalked out for them in the Guru 

Granth and their history. The wisdom of the Singh Sabha leaders lies in 

their clear understanding of their past and the situation they were to face. 

While they never wavered from the ideals and objectives that had been 

laid down for them, they, according to the needs of the times, limited 

their efforts to the task of regeneration and revival of the spirit of the 

community, without directing initially its struggle to the political front. 

We have also seen that having reconstructed and secured their socioreligious 

base, slowly the Singh Sabhaites started pursuing their political 

objectives. It is not an accident or just a coincidence that the first tangible 

rebellion against the British which was mass based took place in Punjab. 

It is significant that it happened in the later part of the Singh 

Sabha period and at a time when in the rest of India there were hardly any 

signs of any such uprising or even a preparation for it. In fact, the Indian 

leaders and the politically conscious elite were openly cooperating with 

the British war effort in those times. Equally contrasted was the reaction 

of the Sikhs in the Punjab to the Rowlatt Act and similar reaction in the 

rest of India. The agitation against the Rowlatt Act, culminating in the 

Jallianwala Bagh massacre and the subsequent imposition of Martial law 

and the Akali struggle for the liberation of their shrines were the two offshoots 

of the religious base that had been securely revived by the Singh 

Sabha. It is a part of history that between 1919 and 1925 no mass based 

political struggle was conducted outside Punjab. 

It is just idle to suggest that any religious identity, or the Sikh 

religious identity that had been created by an ideology, new Institutions, 

and a four-hundred year tradition of martyrdoms and unparalleled 

sacrifices, could be demolished by the British rulers, as they wished to do, 

through the Mahants; or that such a vigorous identIty could 

be created by the British, as some writers suggest.

218 

Religious ideologies or identities cannot be created either by wishful 

thinking or by fiats of the rulers. The fate of Din-i-Illahi of Akbar, an 

Indian Emperor, seeking to change the established tradition and religions 

is well-known. 

Three features of the British Sikh relations are signigicant. In the 

annexation of India, leaderless Sikh armies had given to the British the 

hardest resistance. Second, the Sikhs were a people capable of rebounding 

as they did after Abdali’s blow at Kup, Third, that the entire Sikh strength 

lay in their religious base. It is in this context that we have to interpret the 

two worst massacres of peaceful agitators during the British period. The 

first was the killing of hundreds of Sikhs gathered on the Baisakhi day at 

Jallianwala Bagh by general Dyer, who felt that he had nipped in the bud 

another mutiny. The second was the cold blooded murder and burning of 

the entire Jatha of 130 peaceful Sikhs who had gone to Nanakana Sahib 

to hold a gathering there to free the shrine. And it is the British machine 

guns who under the direction and guidance of the Punjab Administration 

threatened to shoot thousands of Sikhs who collected to lift and cremate 

the bodies of the dead Sikhs at the Gurudwara.It is no accident or 

coincidence that in both these tragedies the victims were predominantly 

or wholly Sikhs against whom the assaults were directed. Both these 

tragedies followed the Singh Sabha Movement; the first as a part of the 

continuing political activity as evidenced by the Kuka Movement, Ghadr 

rebellion and the pre-Jallianwallah risings in rural Punjab. The second was 

an overt British intervention when the Sikhs tried to free their Shrines 

from the Hinduisd Mahants. These two greatest political massacres in 

Indian colonial history were logical results of the British policy towards 

the Sikhs. However, it is correct that knowing full well the potential of a 

difficult adversary, the British were careful enough to placate them on 

minor issues without unnecessarily provoking them into a bitter opposition. 

It is indeed strange that a perceptive scholar like Richard Fox, who calls 

the Akali struggle, the Third Anglo-Sikh Was, is misled into saying that 

the Sikhs were transmuted into Singhs by the British. Such a misreading 

happens, when scholars study a narrow period of events, without viewing 

them in their long and true perspective, including the guru period, when 

the Sikh society was created, matured and its targets fixed. 

The conclusion of our analysis is that the role of Singh Sabha and 

the related history of Punjab in the post-annexation period can

219 

be understood only in its religious, ideological and historical perspective. 

Artificially constructed rationale simply fails to explain the very significant 

and stormy concentration of events that took place in the State in the 

half century following 1873 A.D. The glorious role of the Sikhs in the 

eighteenth century is undoubted. Similar is the outstanding contribution 

of the community to the Indian struggle for Independence. Unless the 

appreciation furnished in this paper is accepted, we create a hiatus in Sikh 

history which no superficial explanation can account for. 

PREFERENCES 

1 Stronger- Uncalled for assumption which we shall discuss in detail at a later stage 

2 McLeod, W.H.; The Sikh: History, Religion and Society (New York, 1989), 37. 

3 Fox, C. Richard; Lions of the Punjab :Culture in the Making (New Delhi, 1987), p.143. 

4 Kapur, A Rajiv; Sikh Separatism: The Politics of Faith (London, 1986), p.25. 

5 Barrier, N. Cerlad; The Sikhs and Their Literature Delhi, 1970), Introduction, P.xl. 

6 Fox; op. cit., pp. 140-145. 

7 “One, Self-existant, Himself the Creator, 

O Nanak! One continueth, another never was and never will be.” 

Guru Granth; ‘Cauri Rag’, Trans. 

Cunningham, J.D.; A History of the Sikhs (Delhi, 1966), p.330. 

8 “Religion consisteth not in mere words; 

He who looketh on all men as equal is religious.” Trans. Macauliffe, M.A.; The Sikh Religion, 

Vol. I (Delhi,1963), P.60 

9 ‘The sense of high and low, and of caste and colour; such are the illusions created in man.” 

Guru Granth, Trans. Copal Singh; Shri Guru Granth Sahib, Vol IV (New Delhi, 1987), P.1188. 

10 “The ignorant fools take stones and worship them. O Hindus, how shall the stone which 

itself sinketh carry you across.” 

Trans. Maeaulifee, Vol.I, p.326. 

11 “O Brahman, thou worshippest and propitiatest the Salagram, and deemest it a good act to 

wear a necklace of sweet basil. Why irrigate barren land and waste thy life.” 

12 “Householders and Hermits are equal, whoever calls on the name of the Lord.” 

Guru Granth, ‘Asa Ragni’. Trans., Cunnigham, p. 334. Cunningham, p. 335. 

14 Dhillion, G.S.;Researches in Sikh Religion and History (Chandigarh, 1989), pp. 2-4. 

15 Guru Granth, ‘Bhairo’, Trans., Teja Singh, Essays in Sikhism (Lahore, 1944),

16 Haqiqat-i-Bonau-i-Firqa-i-Sikhan (1783 AD.) quoted Sher Singh’s article, ‘Guru 

Tegh Bahadur Gave His Head For “Millat-i-nau’, in The Sikh Review Vol.39:2 

No.446, February, 1991. 

17 Ganda Singh (ed.), Sanapat; Shri Gur Sobha (Patiala, 1967), pp.32-33. 

18 Cunningham, J.D.; op.cit., p.64; Bannerjee, I.B.; Evolution of the Khalsa, Vol I (Calcutta, 1963), 

p.116. 

19 Kapur Singh, Parasaraprasna (Amritsar, 1989), (ed.) Piara Singh and Madanjit kaur, p.233. 

20 Khushwant Singh; A History of The Sikhs, Vol.I (New Delhi, 1977), p.l07. 

21 Ganda Singh (ed.); Early European Accounts of The Sikhs (New Delhi, 1974), p. 188. 

22 Bhangu, Rattan Singh; Prachin Panth Parkash (ed.) Bhai Vir Singh (Amritsar, 1962), p. 235; 

23 Ibid. 

Forster, George; A Journey From Bengal England. Vol. I (Patiala, 1970) pp.312-313; Gupta, 

H.R.; History of The Sikhs, Vol.II (Delhi,.1978), p.39. 

24 Devi Prasad, Pandit; Gulshan-i-Punjab (Lucknow, 1872), p. 224; Cunningham; 

op.cif. p. 301. 

25 Dhillon, G.S.; op.cit., p. 77. 

26 Khuswant Singh; op. cit., Vol.II, p. 137. 

27 Khullar, K.K. ; Maharaja Ranjit Singh (New Delhi, 1980), p.185. 

28 Government Records, VIlI-II, p. 328; Punjab Administrative Report, 1851-53, pp. 41-42. 

29 Lahore Political Diaries, VoI.Ill, p.260; Secret Consultation, 7 October, 1848, No. 

621; Fauja Singh; ‘Presidential Address’ in Punjab History Conference, Proceedings 

(Punjabi University, Patiala, November, 1965), p. 139 

30 Khushwant Singh; op. cit., Vol.II, pp. 70-71. 

31 Foreign Secret Consultation, No.21, April 28, 1849. 

32 Ibid 

33 Yadav, Kripal Chandra; ‘British Policy Towards Sikhs, 1849-57' in Harbans Singh and Barrier, 

34 Ibid. 

N. Gerald (ed.); Essays in Honour of Dr. Ganda Singh (Patiala, 1976), p.189. 

35 Khuswant Singh; op. cit, Vol.II, p. 88. 

36 Hunter, W.W.; The Marquess of Dalhousie (Oxfort,1985), p.99. 

37 Yadav, Kirpal Chandra; op. cit., p. 190. 

38 Ibid., p.191. 

39 Ibid. 

40 Petrie, D. (Assistant Director, Criminal Intelligence, Government of India); 

‘Development in Sikh Politics (1900-1911) (A Report)’ in Shiromani Gurdwara Prabandhak 

Committee; Gurdwara Gazettee (Amritsar, April 1969), p. 11. 

41 Khushwant Singh; op.cit., Vol.II, p. 195. 

42 Teja Singh; op. cit., p.161. 

220

43 Khushwant Singh; op. cit., Vol.II, p. 94n. 

221 

44 Maunier, Rene; The Sociology of Colonies Vol.I (London, 1949), p. 171. 

45 Dr. W.H. McLeod, a protagonist of some obviously odd and incongruous and 

superficial formulations about Sikh history has lived and worked at this centre. 

46 Clark, Reobert; A Brief Account of Thirty Years of Missonary Work in the Punjab and 

Sindh (Lahore, 1883), pp. 18-19,66. 

47 The most notable of these Missionaries societies were the American 

Presbyterian Mission, the Church of England, the Cambridge Mission, the 

Baptist Mission and the Church of Scotland. 

48 Government of India; Census of India, 1921, Vol. I, p. 117. 

49 Clark, Reobert; op.cit., pp. 44-45; Letters of Queen Victoria 1837-1861, VoI. III 

(London, 1908), pp. 68-69. 

50 Archer, John Oark; The Sikhs (Princeton, 1946), p.266. 

51 Selections From the Records of the Government of India, Foreign Department, No. 

VI, General Report On the Administration of the Punjab Territories, 1852-53, p. 498, 

in, Yadav, Kirpal Chandra; op.cit., p. 196. 

52 In the Central Punjab, there was a dispossessed aristocracy which had “been brow beaten and 

rendered insert by a calculated official policy of intimidation and suppression with the 

beginning of the British Rule in the Punjab.’ 

I Fauja Singh (ed.); History of Punjab, Vol. VIII,See article by the editor on ‘Kuka Movement’. 

53. Khazan Singh, Jangnama Dilli' in Ashok, Shamsher Singh (ed.) Prachin Varan To Janganame 

(Amritsar, 1971), pp. 324-48 

54 Punjab Government Records; Mutiny Reports, Vol.VIII, Part I, p.237. 

55 Khushwant Singh, op cit., Vol. II, p. 109. 

56 Fauja Singh;’Presidential Address’, Punjab History Conference, First Session November 

12-14,1965, (Punjabi University, Patiala), pp. 138-139. 

57 Rehman, M.A; Lord Dalhousie’s Administration of conquered and Annexed States (Delhi, 1963), 

pp. 47-48,67. 

58 Bell, Evans; The Annexation of the Punjab and Raja Daleep Singh (London, 1882), 

pp.82-83. 

59 Fauja Singh; ‘Presidential Address’, op.cit. p.139. 

60 Payne, C.H.; A Short History of The Sikhs (London n.d.), p. 216. 

61 Ellinwood, C.De Witt (Jr.); ‘An Historical Study of the Punjabi Soldier in World War I’, in 

Harbans Singh and Barrier; op. cit., p. 348. 

62 Barrier, N. Gerald; ‘The Punjab Government and Communal Politics, 1870-1908 in The 

Journal of Asian Studies, Vol. XXVII, November 3, May 1968, p.525. 

63 Ibid., p. 526. 

64 Barrier, N. Gerald; ‘Sikh Emigrants and Their Homeland’ in Dusenbery, Verne 

A. and Barrier, N. Gerald (ed.), The Sikh Diaspora (Delhi, 1989), p. 51. 

65 (Lt. General) Goodenough, W.H. and (Lt. Col.) Dalton, J.C.; The Army Book Forthe British 

Empire (London, 1893), p. 447. 

66 Kerr, J. Ian; ‘Fox and the Lions; The Akali Movement Revisited’ in O’ Connel,

T. Joseph, Isral, Milton et. al. (ed.); Sikh History and Religion in the Twentieth Century 

(Toronto, 1988), p. 216. 

67 The Khalsa Advocate, December 15, 1904 

68 File No. 942- 1922, Home-Political, The Sikh Question in the Punjab, Section 7 (N.A.I); Ludhiana 

222 

Gazetteer 1888-89, Chapter III C, p.72; Punjab Legislature Council Debates-8th January to 

16th April 1921, Vol . I, p.546. 

69 Phillauri, Sharda Ram (Pandit); Sikhan De Raj Di Vithya (Jallandhar, 1956), p42 (ed.) 

Pritam Singh; Gill, Harbans Kaur, Sharda Ram Phillauri, (Patiala, 1976), p. 19. 

70 Pritam Singh; Ibid., p.43; Balbir Singh; Charn Hari Visthar (Amritsar n.d.), Part I, pp. 63-64. 

Gurdwara Gazettee, Amritsar, August 1953, p.9. 

71 Court, Henry; Sikhan De Raj Di Vithiya (Patiala, 1970), p.8 

72 Ganda Singh; A History of the Khalsa College, Amritsar (Amritsar, 1949), p. 2; The Khalsa 

Advocate, Amritsar, September 20, 1903. want Singh; op. cit., Vol.I, p. 129. 

74 Khushwant Singh; Ibid. P. 145. 

75 Ibid., p. 127 (n) 

76 Ludhiana Gazetter, 1888-89, Chapter III-C, p. 72. 

77 Report of the Singh Sabha, Patiala, 1880 pp.5-6. 

78 Shri Gurmat Parkash, Rawalpindi,September, 1885. 

79 Dhillon, G.S.;’Origin and Development of the Singh Sabha Movement; Constituional Aspects’ 

in Ganda Singh (ed.); The Singh Sabha And other Socio-Religious Movements in The 

Punjab 1850-1925; The Panjab Past and Present, Vol.VII, Part I, April, 1973, Serial No. 

13, Punjabi University, Patiala, pp. 50-51. 

80 Singh Sabha Amritsar; Niyam (Amritsar, 1890), p.l; Report on the Administration of The 

Punjab and Its Dependencies For 1897- 98 (Lahore, 1898); No.62, p. ccxix; Ganda Singh; 

op.cit., p.2; Dhillon, G.S.; Character and Impact of The Singh Sabha Movement on the 

History of the Punjab (Ph.D. Thesis, Punjabi University, Patiala, 1973), p.54 

81 Sahni, ‘Ruchi Ram; The Gurdwara Refor Movement and the Sikh Awakening (Jullundur, 

1922), p. 150. 

82 Vihiria, Avtar Singh (Bhai); Shok Pattar (Lahore, 1905), p. 38. 

83 Ibid. 

84 Khalsa Akhbar, lahore, April 14, 1899. 

85 Sahni, Ruchi Ram; op. cit., p. 150; 

Vihiria, Avtar Singh(Bhai); Gurdarshan Shastar 

(Amritsar, 1916), pp.12-13; Vihiria Shok Pattar, p. 38. 

86 Khalsa Akhbar, Lahore, September 30,1898. 

87 Chief Khalsa Diwan; Seva De Panjah Sal (Amritsar, 1952), p.2;

Dhillon, G.S. ; op.cit., p. 58. 

89 Report of the Singh Sabha,. Patiala. 1906) pp.1-5 

90 Gurmukh Singh (Bhai); My Attempted Ex-Communication From The Sikh Temples and The 

91 Ibid. 

92 Ibid. 

Khalsa Community at Faridkot in 1897 (Lahore, 1898), p. 12. 

93 Patrie, D. op. cit. in The Punjab Past and Present Vol. IV Part II (Patiala, October 1970), 

94 Ibid. 

95 Ibid. 

Sahnis Ruchi Ram op. cit., p. 15; Gurmukh Singh (Bhai); op.cit., pp. 2-3. 

96 Durga Parsad; An English Translation of the Satyrath Parkash (Lahore, 1904), pp.361-63; 

Ganda Singh; ‘The Origins of the Hindu-Sikh Tension in the Punhjab’, in The Journal of 

Indian History, Vol. XXIV, April, 1961, pp. 121-23; The Khalsa Akhbar, Lahore, July 7,1899; 

Lakshman Singh, Bhagat; Autobiography (Calcutta, 1965), p. 58; Vaid, Mohan Singh (Bhai); 

Arya De Dhol Da pol (Taran Taran, 1915), p.14. 

97 Majumdar, R.C. (ed.); History and Culture of the Indian People. Vol X (Bombay, 1965), p. 103. 

98 Smith, R. Bosworth; Life of Lord Lawrence (London, 1883), Vol. I, p. 287. 

99 Temple, Richard; India In 1880 (London, 1881), p. 120. 

100 Chief Kbalsa Di wan; Rules and Regulations of the Chief Khalsa Diwan (Amritsar, 1904), p. 1. 

101 “I had come to regard the Khalsa College, Amritsar, as Government College minus 

Government Discipline. No member had a free hand in it, hence it was idle to think of doing 

any constructive work without the previous sanction of the Government”. Lakshman 

Singh, Bhagat; op. cit., p. 203. 

102 Ahulwalia, M.L. (ed.); Select Documents- GurdwaraReform Movement 1919-1925 

(New Delhi, 1985), Introduction, p. xxiii. 

103 Sunder Singh, Master; Ki Khalsa kalaj Sikhan DaHai? (Amritsar, 1909), pp. 30-37. 

104 A Petrie D.; op. cit. in Gurdwara Gazettes, p. 45; Isemonger, F.C.and Slattery, J.; 

An Account of the Chadr Consipracy, 1913-15 (Lahore, 1919), p. 19. 

105 Petrie, D.; op. cit., pp. 37-39. 

106 Ibid.; Dhillon; op.cit.; p. 284. 

107 Petrie, D. Ibid., p.46. 

108 Ibid. 

109 Ibid., pp. 46-48. 

110 Ibid. 

111 Talwar, K.S.; ‘Early Phases of The Sikh Renaissance and Struggle For Freedom’ In Punjab 

Past and Present (Patiala, October 1970), p. 295. 

223

112 Ibid. 

113 Ibid. 

114 Ibid 

115 Barrier; The Sikhs and Their Literature (Delhi, 1970), p. 79. 

116 Khalsa Samachar, Amritsar, December 23,1908. 

117 Sahni, Ruchi Ram; op. cit., p. 466; Narang, Gokul Chan; Transformation of Sikh ism 

(Lahore, 1946), p. 321. 

118 Government of India; Home Department, Judicial No. 950, June 25,1914, Simla; 

Government of India; Home Department, Judicial No. 1118,July 17, 1914, Simla; 

Government of India; Home Department, 

Judicial NO. 2248, October, 1914, Simla (N.A.I.); 

Teja Singh; op. cit., p. 208; 

224 

Ganda Singh; ‘Exemption of Kirpan From Restrictions Under the Arms Act’ 

ini Punjab Past and Present Vol. VII, Part I (Punjabi University, Patiala, April 1973), pp 

162-172. 

119 Teja Singh; Ibid, p. 209. 

120 McLeod, W.H.; The Sikhs; History, Religion and Society (New York, 1989), p. 8. 

121 Fox, Richard; op. cit.. pp.208-210. 

122. Barrier, N Gerald; Sikh Emigrants and Their Homeland in Dusenbery, Verne A. and Barrier 

N. Gerald (ed.); The Sikh Diaspora (Delhi, 1989), p. 51. 

123 Semonger, F.C. and Slattery, j.; op.cit., pp. 2-4. 

124 Talwar, K.S.; op. cit. pp. 293-94. 

125 Patrie, D.; op.cit., p. 325. 

126 Punjab Administrative Report (1921-22). Vol.I, p.238. 

127 Caveeshar, Sardul Singh; ‘The Akali Movement’ in Punjab Past and Present, Vol. VII, Part I 

(Punjabi university, Patiala, April 1973), p.120.128 Ibid. 

129 Ibid 

130 Jagjit Singh; Ghadr Party Lehr (Delhi, 1976) pp. 47, 204. 

131 Ibid., pp.51-52. 

132 lsemonger, F.C. and Slattery, j.; op.cit. pp. 2-3, 37. 

133 Ibid. 

134 Ibid. 

135 Harding, Charles; My Indian Years, 1910-16 (London 1947), p. 115. 

136 Khushwant singh; op.cit. Vol. IIp. 179 (28 n) 

137 Caveeshar, Sardul Singh; op. cit., pp. 120. 137. 

138 Government of India; Home-Political- November, 1914- Pro. No. 100; Caveeshar,op. cit., 

p. 121. 

139 Punjab Administrative Report (1921-22), Vol.I, pp. 238-39 

140 Caveeshar; op. cit., p.87 

141 Ibid

142 Alhuwalia;op.cit., p. 87. 

143 Purl, Rajinder; Rediscovery of India (New Delhi), 1984, pp. 112-13. 

144 Mittal, S.C.; Freedom Movement in Punjab (1905-29) (Delhi 1977), pp. 82, 143. 

145 Purl, Rajinder; op. cit., p. 110. 

146. Datta, V.N.; Inaugural Address At the 24th Session of Punjab History Conference, 

Punjabi University, Patiala, 15-17 March, 1991. 

147 Grewal, J.S. and Puri, H.K.; Udham Singh Dian Chithian, (Amritsar 1974), pp. 

58, 60-61. 

148 Ibid., pp. 66-67. 

149 Punjab Administrative Report (1921-22), Vol. I, pp. 238-39. 

150 Mohinder Singh; The Akali Movement (Delhi 1978), p.14. 

151 Ahluwalia, M.L., op. cit., p. 89. 

152 Khushwant Singh, op.cit., Vol. II, pp. 165-66. 

153 Ibid. 

154 Ibid 

155 Josh, Sohan Singh, Akali Morchian Da ltihas (Delhi 1972), p. 28. 

156 Mohinder Singh, op.cit. pp. 87-88. 

157 Punjab Administrative Report, 1921-22, Vol. I, p. 351. 

158 Smith, V.M., ‘The Akali Dal and Shromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (1921- 22)’, 

A Confidential Memorandum in Punjab Past and Present (Punjabi University, Patiala, 

October 1967), Vol. I, Part II, p. 279. 

159 Gaveeshar, op.cit., p. 141. 

160 Gurbax Singh, Society in The Punjab Under Ranjit singh; Mufti-Ali-ud-Din’s Analysis in 

Punjab History Conference Proceedings, February 28- 29, 1976 (Patiala, 1976), pp. 135-37. 

161 Roth, Cool, Short History of the Jewish People (Glasgow 1948), pp. 110-112. 

225

15 

SIKH IDENTITY: A CONTINUING FEATURE 

GURDARSHAN SINGH DHILLON 

226 

1. Introduction: 

In recent years some western writers as also a few Indian writers, 

particularly sociologists and historians, while writing about Sikh 

religion, its injuctions, doctrines and practices have made two 

fundamentally fallacious observations by calling Sikhism a tradition 

and a pluralistic religion. Such descriptions, apart from being 

doctrinally incorrect, give an entirely wrong image of the fundamentals 

of the religion and the Sikh society as a whole. In this paper, we intend 

clarifying the issue by showing that Sikhism is not only a well-defined 

religion but is far from being pluralistic. To out-siders not acquainted 

with Sikhism such misrepresentations might seem plausible because 

Hinduism with its innumerable sects and cults and undefined doctrines 

has generally been taken to be a tradition and a pluralistic system. But 

for scholars in India there could hardly be a ground for confusion 

about Sikhism. Another two factors have also led to such loose 

statements even in the academic field. First, studies in sociology and 

anthropology have become so specialised and narrow in scope that 

scholars sometimes lose the overall perspective. Unfortunately, after 

Independence the political factor and the ensuing tensions have also 

led to some skewing of visions:. 

We have taken up this isssue because in the writings of W.H. 

Mcleod 1 , Rajiv Kapur 2 and in papers contributed at Berkley (U.S.A.) 

and Toronto (Canada), an entirely wrong perspective has been 

presented. Our essay deals with, as a case study, the paper of H.S. 

Oberoi (presently in the Chair of Sikh and Punjabi studies at the 

University of British Columbia, Canada), read at the Conference held 

at Toronto in February, 1987 (published in the book, ‘Sikh History 

and Religion in the Twentieth Century’ (Joseph T.O.’

227 

Connell, Milton Israel, Willard G. Oxtoby, eds., with W.H. Mcleod and J.S. 

Grewal, visiting eds.), brought out by Center of South Asian Studies, 

University of Toronto, 1988). We have chosen this paper, ‘From Ritual to 

Counter-Ritual Rethinking the Hindu-Sikh Question, 1884-1915’, because 

W.H. Mcleod’s book, ‘Who is A Sikh?”, also suffers from the same drawback, 

which H.S. Oberoi 3 quotes liberally, and presents practically the 

same faulty and narrow point of view. Oberoi in the opening para of his 

paper writes, “Until then (late nineteenth century) the Sikhs had shown 

little collective interest in distinguishing themselves from the Hindus. Sikh 

notions of time, space, corporality, holiness, kinship, social distinctions, 

purity and pollution, and commensality were hardly different from those 

of the Hindus. Also the two shared the territory, language, rites de passage, 

dietary taboos, festivals, ritual personnel and key theological doctrines. 

The construction of personhood within the two traditions and their 

solutions for existential problems were quite alike. In brief, the semiotic” 

cultural, affective and territorial universe of the Sikhs, and Hindus was 

virtually identical.’. 4 

The confusion in the paper starts from the very loose and incorrect 

connotations accepted by Oberoi of the words ‘tradition’, ‘holiness’, 

‘societal distinctions’, ‘purity’ and ‘pollution; ‘commensality’, ‘key 

theological doctrines’, etc. Oxford dictionary defines tradition as something 

which is supposed to have divine authority but is not committed to writing; 

(1) Opinion or belief or custom handed down, from ancestors to 

posterity especially orally or by practice. (2) Theological doctrine etc. 

supposed to have divine authority but not committed to writing, especially. 

(a) laws held by Pharisees to have been delivered by God to Moses, (b) 

oral teaching of Christ and Apostles not recorded in writings by immediate 

disciples, (c) words and deeds of Muhammad not in Koran. . 

2.Ideology: 

In no religion of the world key theological doctrines, ideas of purity 

and pollution, holiness, societal distinctions, commensality, 

etc. have been more rigorously defined and authenticated 

than in the Sikh scripture, Guru Granth, which the Gurus call the revealed 

Words (Shabad) 5 But in making his descriptions in reference to theolgoical 

ideas and doctrines, Oberoi completely distorts their meanings since he 

never makes any reference to the Guru Granth.

228 

Because, a cultural practice or the acceptance of an idea, if contrary to 

the injuctions in the scripture, is an aberration and can never be deemed 

to redefine the doctrine or be made the basis of the presence of a deviant 

group. 

Oberio’s basic fault is that he neither defines Sikhism nor clarifies 

how a deviant practice forms the faith of a pluralistic group in Sikhism. 

For, in a religion, persons violating the vows of marriage are not taken to 

form a new sect of that religion, or a pluralistic group. Therefore, in order 

to show the contrast between Sikhism and Hinduism, and the two societies, 

it is necessary to state briefly the fundamentals of the Sikh ideology and 

their difference from the doctrines of Hinduism. Significantly, the basic 

principles of Sikhism were defined by Guru Nanak and he also laid the 

foundations of its social structure. 6 The later Gurus, only developed that 

structure and built the Sikh Society clearly in pursuance of those principles. 

Guru Nanak is the first man in India, who broke the dichotomy between 

the spiritual life and the empirical life of man and made an inalienable 

combination between the two. Further, in the Japuji he defines ‘who is a 

Sikh’ and ‘how to be a Sikh’ by saying that to be a true person (Sachiara) 

and break the wall of darkness, obstructing man’s vision one has to carry 

out His Will, the same being Altruistic. 7 It is this clear definition that 

brought about a fundamental departure from the earlier Indian religions, 

including Hinduism. At one stroke Guru Nanak made the following 

revolutionary changes; (1) Instead of the world being Mithya, or a suffering, 

he called it real. 8 (2) He rejected monasticism, asceticism and withdrawal 

from life and instead recommended total participation in life and acceptance 

of social responsibility. 9 (3) Instead of down-grading the status of woman 

in relation to spiritual life and recommending celibacy, he recommended a 

householder’s life and equality of man and woman. 10 (4) Instead of the 

religious doctrine of Varna Ashram Dharma and consequent rules of caste, 

pollution, social segregation and professional immobility, he accepted 

equality of all men. 11 (5) He rejected Ahimsa as an inviolable religious 

doctrine. 12 (6) Instead of life negation he recommended life affirmation in 

all fields of life. 13 (7) In his ethical monotheism, the Guru Granth clearly 

denies the idea of Avtars and their worship, including those of gods and 

goddesses. 14 (8) Instead of religion being a matter of personal devotion 

and salvation, he, because of his fundamental doctrine of 

combining the spiritual with the empirical, organised a society in

229 

which promotion or defence of righteousness became essential. 15 

Accordingly Guru Nanak not only organised a society but the created 

a system of succession so as to develop it on the lines of his thesis. Hence 

the clear differences between Hindu and Sikh societies, their value systems 

and social practices. The call Guru Nanak gave to every seeker was, “If 

you want to tread the path of love, then enter upon my path with your 

head on your palm”. 16 

Guru Nanak’s successors from the second Guru onwards created 

various institutions of Manjis and Masands, centres of Sikh organisation, 

etc. For, according to Guru Nanak, he was a prophet ordained to carry 

out a mission. The Sikh Gurus thus weaned away the Sikhs from the old 

Hindu society and created new motivations among their followers to pursue 

the mission. Exactly the same words as of Guru Nanak were spoken by 

Guru Arjan when Bhai Manj, a Sakhi Sarvaria, came to seek his advice. 

The Guru’s reply is very revealing of the Sikh thesis. He said, “You may 

go on with the easy path of Sakhi Sarvar worship, because Sikhism is a 

very difficult path and unless you are willing to be dispossessed of your 

wealth and to sacrifice your very life, it is no use coming to me.” But Bhai 

Manj did become a Sikh. 17 Guru’s statement made two things very clear, 

namely, the risk and sacrifices involved in following the Sikh faith, and, 

secondly, that a dual loyality to Sikhism and to any other religious system 

was out of question. The Sixth Guru while creating the institution of 

Akal Takhat only institutionalised the fundamental doctrine of Guru 

Nanak combining spirtitual and empirical lives of man. Guru Hargovind 

made it clear to Sant Ram Das that he was simply pursuing the mission of 

Guru Nanak. 18 Guru Nanak’s mission of creating whole men’ motivated 

to accept total responsibility in respect of all spheres of life (Sant Sipahi 

ideal) was continued by the subsequent four Gurus till Guru Gobind 

Singh did the epitomic work of creating the Khalsa, closing the line of 

personal Gurus and entrusting the ideological Guruship to the Shabad’(Guru 

Granth). He directed the Khalsa to shoulder the total responsibility of 

defending and pursuing righteousness and justice. It is extremely significant 

that demand for total commitment to the mission, and willingness to 

sacrifice everything for the cause was the same as had been made by Guru 

Nanak and repeated by Guru Arjan to Bhai Manj. Just like Guru Arjan, 

Guru Gobind Singh also made it clear by his Nash doctrine that multiple 

loyalities and plurality of beliefs were out of question in Sikhism. 19 The 

only difference was that

230 

whereas both the Khalsa and non-Khalsa Sikhs were Sikhs, every Sikh 

was not a member of the Khalsa till he had made the necessary 

commitment required by the Tenth Master. 

3. Faults in the Assumptions and Methodology of Oberoi: 

This conclusion is evident so far as the doctrines were concerned, 

everything laid down in the Guru Granth was final and unalternable. 

Secondly, that so far as plurality is concerned one could only be a Sikh or 

a Khalsa with unalloyed loyalty to the Scripture. Accordingly, there is no 

scope for acceptig any doctrine of ‘holiness’, ‘theology’, ‘rituals’, ‘practices’, 

‘customs’ and rites’, variant from those embodied in the Guru Granth. 

Nor is there any scope for plurality of sects and sub-sects, tradition and 

sub-tradition, big tradition and small tradition in any sense different from 

the Sikhs and Khalsa defined above. Accordingly, it is ridiculous for Oberoi 

to call groups like Udasis, Suthreshahis, Sangatshahi, Jitmalis, Bakhatmalis, 

Mihanshahis, Sarvarias, etc. as lying within the framework of the Sikh 

faith. 20 Further examination of Oberoi’s paper will proceed in the light of 

the doctrinal position stated above. 

Oberoi’s statement that,”ln the absence of centralized Church and 

an attendant religious hierarcy, heterogeniety in religious beliefs, plurality. 

of rituals, and diversity of life styles were freely acknowledged.’. 21 is 

obviously baseless. For elimination of the Brahminical heirarchy was a 

major achievement of the Sikh Gurus. However, there was no bar to 

attending festivals, fairs, or be a part of institutions so long that partaking 

was not incongruous with the doctrines of the Gurus. The Sikh cosmology 

stood well defined and there was only a single Sikh identity impossible of 

variation or transgression. It is strange that without defining Sikhism Oberoi 

writes, “Most Sikhs moved in and out of multiple identities, defining 

themselves at one moment as residents of this village, at another as 

members of that cult, at one moment as part of this lineage, at another as 

part of that caste and yet another as belonging to a “Sect”. The boundaries 

between what could be seen as the centre of the Sikh tradition and its 

periphery were highly blurred”. There simply was no single source of 

authority within the Sikh tradition and thus several competing definitions 

of what constituted a “Sikh” were possible”. 22 

We have indicated the definition laid down by the Gurus both for 

Sikhism and a Sikh. It makes it also clear how essential was Guru Gobind 

Singh’s step of Amrit ceremony and the related Nash

231 

doctrine clearly defining the Sikh. In this context Oberoi’s statements 

about Sikhism and Sikh identity are just unwarranted by facts. He makes 

another observation, borrowed from Arya Samaj writings of the late 19th 

Century, that Sikh separatism was the result of economic competition 

between Sikh and Hindu middle classes and it had some backing from the 

British. He gives no evidence whatsoever to support his observations 

regarding the supposed competition and the economic distress. With this 

preamble, he proceeds to make a detailed description of some social and 

superstitious practices prevalent in Punjab. 

Before we proceed to examine his statements regarding the Hindu 

and Sikh societies, it is necessary to expose the basically wrong assumptions 

in his preamble and his method of study. All social studies if those remain 

unrelated to earlier periods or religious doctrines, and are done in isolation 

for a narrow period of time would be distortional, unless they appropriately 

give some background of the societies that are under study. This is far 

more true of emerging religious societies, especially prophetic religions 

that make a major and radical departure from the earlier religious societies. 

Oberoi’s paper makes an entirely baseless assumption that for four hundred 

years before the end of the 19th century the Hindus and the Sikhs formed 

one society. This means that in those four hundred years there was a 

single and peaceful Hindu society without any major historical events. In 

short, he makes a complete black out of the Sikh epoch, the Sikh Scripture 

and its redical doctrines, the ten Gurus and their mission, the Sikh society 

and a century of its persecution and revolt, and the phenomenal 

achievements of the Guru and the Sikhs in those four hundred years. No 

student of social history can ignore the radical regeneration brought about 

by the Sikh Gurus by introducing the creative institution of martyrdom, 

practically unknown to the Indian society. No understanding of the 19th 

Century Sikh society is possible without a clear grasp of its religion, history 

and achievements. Obviously, this gross omission, by Oberoi, evidently 

deliberate, vitiates his entire paper and shows its motivated slant. 

What we have emphasised above is the presence of an entirely new 

Sikh society with radically different motivations, Ideals and ethos as 

separate from the old Hindu society. Those motivations and ethos were 

created by the Gurus through the glorious institution of martyrdom over 

a period of more than two

232 

hundred years. In the early 18th Century started the period of Sikh revolt, 

struggle, intense persecution by the state, ending finally in triumphs of 

the Sikhs and their freedom from socio-political oppression. Sikh society 

alone went through this fire of turbulations and trials. It is during this 

period of four hundred years, that their ideological, social, ethical and 

cultural separateness from the Hindu society was defined and welded 

clearly. But all this has been naively ignored by Oberoi. 

After their success came the fifty years of Sikh rule in the Punjab. 

Some facts and features of this period are necessary to state. Apart from 

the fact that power brought some weaknesses, it also drew the flock of 

fair-weather friends, who had stood clearly apart during the earlier centuries, 

especially the Century of struggle and persecution, but for the first time 

entered the Sikh fold to reap benefits of the Sikh Raj. Here some 

demographic facts are extremely important. During the Guru period the 

question of plurality of Sikhs did not and could not arise because Sikhism 

was led and defined by the Gurus themselves. In the 18th Century when 

there was price on Sikh heads, and thrice it was reported that all Sikhs had 

been exterminated, 23 the chances of plurality of faith were still less. It was 

a completely homogenous society with singleness of faith, with its 

members ready to sacrifice their all as desired by the call of the Gurus. It 

is this history of persecution, struggle and martyrdoms that welded the 

Sikh society with a unity of ideals, ethos and practices entirely different 

from the surrounding Hindu society. We have given this background, 

because in the 18th Century the population of Sikhs was once reported to 

be only twenty thousand 24 but in the period of Ranjit Singh it rose to the 

peak figure of 10-11lacs. 25 We just wanted to indicate that it is naturally 

these converts of convenience, who formed a significant part of the Sikh 

Community in the second half of the 19th Century. 26 These were drawn 

largely from the Hindu society, who naturally did not shed straight away 

many parts of their earlier practices. The characters of these two segments 

of the Sikh society were found notably different by discerning observers. 

John Malcolm in his book, ‘Sketch of the Sikhs’, published in 1810, 

writes, “The character of the Sikhs, or rather Sinhs, which is the name by 

which the followers of Guru Govind, who are all devoted to arms, are 

distinguished, is very marked. The Sikh identity is shared by the Sikh 

merchant, or cultivator, of the soil, if he is a Sinh, not merely by the 

soldiers who so conspicuously

233 

paraded it. The ‘followers of Guru Govind or Khalsa Sikhs are clearly 

distinguished.’ Another category of Sikhs whom he calls Khalasa Sikhs he 

considers them quite different in character. “Their character differs widely 

from that of the Sinhs. Full of intrigue, pliant, versatile and insinuating, 

they have all the art of the lower classes of Hindus, who are usually 

employed in transacting business; from whom, indeed, as they have no 

distinction of dress, it is difficult to distinguish them.,, 27 A similar 

distinction is made by Forester and J.D. Cunnigham. Malcolm also indicates 

Nanak Putras, who were Bedi descendents of the family of Guru Nanak 

from Lakhmi Das? 28 lt is these Nanak Putras who because of the favours 

gained by them during the Sikh rule, later continued the practice of personal 

following among Sikhs and Hindus, a practice distinctly censured by the 

Gurus. 

It is in this context of a distinct and radical difference between the 

Hindu and the Sikh societies of the earlier three centuries that we proceed 

to examine the sociological observations made by Oberoi in the rest of 

his paper. He has prefaced his description with the wholly incorrect 

statement that in the earlier four hundred years, the Sikhs and the Hindus 

formed a single homogenous society and the gap was created by the Singh 

Sabha on account of economic competition among the middle classes 

and stringency of resources among the traders and agriculturists. We have 

indicated the serious methodological fault of Oberoi and his deliberate 

exclusion of important facts about the earlier period of Sikh history and 

Sikh struggles and achievements. Religious societies are formed only if 

they have an ideology and successfully emerge out of the fire of 

persecution. It is these struggles and the institution of martyrdom for the 

faith which frame and mould their character. Students of history know 

that there would have been no Christian religion or society unless the 

followers of Christ had gone through decades of persecution and shown 

their defiant response of suffering and martyrdoms in the early two hundred 

years. A view is held even today that Christ never wanted to create a 

religion separate from Judaism, but it is his martyrdom and the subsequent 

response of his followers, the Christians, who created Christianity, and 

the Christian society. 

We have to make another general observation. Anything not 

prescribed by the Sikh scripture or the Gurus, a Sikh is not barred from 

practising in relation to his social and cultural life. But something barred 

by the Scripture or the Gurus or contrary to clear

234 

injunctions is an aberration and its practice by some cannot indicate plurality 

of the Sikh faith or constitute a sect of the Sikh society. Sinners and 

adulterers are there in every religious society but they form no sect of the 

faith. We have noted this point because in his description of practices, 

Oberoi makes no distinction between sanctioned and unsanctioned 

practices, thereby creating confusion and obliterating the line between 

cultural practices and aberrations. . 

Here we might also record that rituals and ceremonies are, broadly 

speaking, of three kinds: 

(1) Acts or rituals performed as the result of religious or ethical 

injuctions of the concerned faith. (2) Those which cater to customs or 

social practice unrelated to any particular faith. (3) Utilitarian practices 

following mundane needs of the local society. Oberoi in describing his 

rituals has neither indicated the extent of their prevalence nor related 

them to religious injuctions of the Sikhs, Hindus or Muslims. The Punjab 

society of the times was constituted of about 52% Muslims, about 12% 

Sikhs and the remaining were Hindus. Sakhi Sarvar was a Muslim Pir from 

the largely Muslim populated area of Punjab. His following among the 

Muslims was naturally the largest, numerous of his followers were Hindus. 29 

4. Examination of Oberoi’ s Paper:- 

Now we proceed to examine his paper which suffers from lack of 

methodology substituted by irrelevant profusion of details, thereby creating 

confusion and drawing inferences unsupported by precise facts. In his 

opening paras Oberoi again makes a curious statement that cultural 

practices were not “an extension of their religious traditions, but were 

embedded in a complex idiom of kinship, patron-client relationships and 

asymmetrical recipro-city.’ 30 In the background we have explained how 

obvious is his misstatement that, “Religion, I would like to argue, is not, 

as has often been assumed, a key to understanding the pre-British society.” 

31 He makes a similar misstatement when he says that, “In the Indian 

religious tradition, unlike the Judeo-Christian, there was no notion of a 

well-demarcated religious community possessing a centralized ecclesiastical 

hierarchy. People did not conceive of themselves simply as “Hindus” or 

“Sikhs” 32 Anyone with the knowledge of Brahmanism would find such 

statements to be just groundless. For, Brahminical rules rigidly governed 

every phase and act of life whether religious, social or cultural; and 

Brahmins

235 

were the exclusive agency to supervise and conduct all related acts and 

ceremonies concerning human interests. Brahmanism and Brahmin 

hierarchy have been considered the bane of the Hindu society. Guru Nanak 

and the Sikh Gurus purposely rejected both. But Oberoi brands this as 

the elimination of a necessary feature of a society. Again it is Oberoi’s 

complete ignorance of the Sikh religion when he says that religion is for 

the individual salvation of man. 33 It is a Hindu idea that was specifically 

discarded by the Gurus by creating and organising a separate religious 

system in which social responsibility and social salvation of man were an 

essential part, following Gurus’ doctrine of combining the spiritual and 

the empirical concerns of man. 34 This combination exists both in Sikhism 

and Islam which distinguishes them radically from the other societies in 

the East where the dichotomy between the spiritual and the empirical 

continues, creating thereby a wide gap between the householders and 

recluses who openly withdraw from the social sphere to seek personal 

salvation. 35 The observations of Oberoi show his complete ignorance 

both of the Sikh religion and its society and the Hindu religion and its 

society. In the Hindu society there is a wide social and cultural gap between 

its main stream and its saints, yogis, sanyasis and other religious groups 

pursuing Moksha. That is why Maitra’s study of Hindu ethics clearly 

concludes that the ethical injuctions of that religion hardly relate to the 

empirical, social or cultural life of the society. His ignorance also explains 

his observation that religion was a highly localised affair. For that reason 

his views based on studies in South Asia or peasant societies elsewhere 

are quite irrelevant in respect of the Sikh Society in Punjab. 

Seen in the light of our observations, and in the background of the 

prophetic and monumental work of the ten Gurus in creating a new religion 

and organising the Sikh society, and the extreme sacrifices the Sikhs made 

to maintain their identity created by the Gurus in the earlier centuries, it is 

ridiculous for Oberoi to assume that, “religion as a systematized 

sociological unit claiming unbridled loyalty for its adherents is a relatively 

recent development in the history of the Indian peoples. Once this 

phenomenon surfaced, probably sometimes in the nineteenth century, it 

rapidly evolved, gained wide support and became reified in history. Out 

of this reification process it easily turned into something separate, distinct 

and concrete; what we to-day recognise as Buddhism, Hinduism and 

Sikhism: 36 Though the

236 

phraseology is slightly different, in essence Oberoi is voicing the views of 

a Hindu scholar who says, “But when it comes to the Indians belonging to 

religions which originated in India, such as Buddhists Jains and Sikhs, 

many a Hindu regard them as downright unpatriotic or unspiritual or both 

if they wish to maintain their distinct identity from the Hindus..” 37 And so 

far as Parkash Tandon’s statement, Oberoi quotes, we have already noted 

the phenomenon of certain Hindu castes entering the Sikh fold during the 

period of Ranjit Singh. “From the fact that Hindus and Sikhs shared 

positions within a single social structure, and from the “peculiar” nature 

of religion in Indian society, there flowed an important consequence: the 

religious categories “Hindu” and “Sikh” were ambiguous, fluid and 

fragile.” 38 This is not correct, because the distinction continued right through 

the 19th century as observed by Malcolm except for the new entrants, 

who entered because of socio-political considerations. 

As for the Sutak and other such superstitious practices, we have to 

state that the Guru Granth clearly deprecates this and other Chhut practices 

in the Hindu societies. The difficulty is that in making his observations, 

Oberoi seems to make a deliberate confusion by neither giving the extent 

of those practices nor of making a distinction whether or not such practices 

were confined only to Hindu castes. He concedes that in the case of the 

birth ceremony, the child was named by a Sikh Granthi and Sikh prayers 

were made. Vague and general statements like, “There was an immense 

variation in ceremonial not only among the different castes of Sikhs but 

also within caste groups among Sikhs of different localities.” 39 are numerous 

in the paper of Oberoi. There are also statements concerning the 

employment of messengers (Prohit or Nai) from certain castes. Similarly, 

many cultural features like the use of drums,.singing and dancing are 

equally without any meaning and consequence. Since in every society 

there are local cultural practices that contravene no religious injuctions. 

These have no relevance for our discussion. 

It is well known, and Oberoi concedes it, that Guru Amar Das 

distinctly provided for the Sikh society separate non-superstitious practices, 

regarding birth, marriage and death ceremonies. 40 The disappearance of 

Hindu practices during the Guru period and the revolutionary period has 

been evident and their re-appearance in the 19th Century among some 

sections of the neo-converts is understandable. In all his statements Oberoi 

seems purposely to

237 

have avoided indicating their extent. The only practice about which there 

is some evidence of its extent, is about Sakhi Sarvarias who were only 3% 

among the Sikhs, 41 and Oberoi mentions it as an evidence of Sikh pluralism. 

The argument is ridiculous, for, it is Guru Arjan who stated that one 

could either be a Sikh or a Sakhi Sarvana. Followers of Sakhi Sarvar, a 

Muslim saint, formed a separate sect. It is known that this Muslim practice, 

was quite common even in the Hindu society and later was also brought 

in the Sikh society when in the 19th Century sections of the Hindus 

accepted Sikhism. Therefore, such aberrations, unsanctioned by the Sikh 

Gurus, disappeared progressively. But it proves pluralism neither of Islam 

nor of Sikhism. So far as the Sikh society of the 18th Century is concerned, 

the observations of Malcolm and others are unambiguious. By the Amrit 

ceremony the tenth Guru obliterated all distinctions of caste and the rest, 

thereby separating Sikhs from the Hindus. The Guru’s intention found 

expression in the initiation ceremony and those who understand the 

meaning of that ceremony will appreciate that Guru Gobind Singh had 

separated his followers for ever from the Hindus. The Singhs, Akalis and 

Shahids strictly observed the injuctions of the Gurus. Obviously, those 

who sacrificed their all for their religion and its symbols would not indulge 

in any Hindu practice prohibited by the Gurus. It is also meaningless for 

Oberoi to quote Barbara Myershoff and Sally Falk Moore to suggest that, 

“ritual practices help people to overcome indeterminancy in life.” 42 The 

argument is irrelevant concerning the Sikhs whom the Gurus had given a 

new scripture and a distinct identity regarding their form and beliefs, 

including ceremonies for birth, marriage and death. If Brahmins or others 

were employed for ancillary purposes that hardly affected the identity of 

the Sikhs. 

The most revealing part of Oberoi’s paper, which virtually demolishes 

the entire structure of his argument, is when he says, “All this, no doubt, 

can be qualified to some extent. Within the pluralistic framework of Sikh 

tradition in the nineteenth century there was a significant khalsa ‘subtradition’ 

that did not blend very well with the amorphous state of the 

Sikh faith. The Khalsa Sikhs had their own notion of what constituted 

the Sikh past and more importantly they possessed a distinct life style 

ritual in the form of Khande-da-Phahul or baptism rites. Those who 

underwent this rite had to maintain the five well-known symbols of the 

Khalsa and in addition strictly to observe the injunctions laid down in the

238 

rahit-namas or manuals of conduct. 43 “These manuals most clearly manifest 

the aspirations and ethos of the Khalsa sub-tradition. They visulised a 

considerably deritualized Sikhism, shorn of polytheism, idolatry and 

Brahmanical dominance. But a great deal of historical and linguistic 

research needs to be carried out before we can be sure how precisely the 

rahit-nama texts related to the aspirations of the Khalsa. However, one 

point is clear: in many ways the rahit-nama literature foreshadowed the 

homogenous Sikh identity and religious boundaries of the late nineteenth 

century.” 44 

The existence of the body of Sikhs whom he calls Khalsa, he cannot 

conceal. But nothing can be a bigger distortion than, for Oberoi to state 

that the community which the Gurus created, led and motivated for over 

two hundred years, whom they gave a new Scripture fully governing their 

religious and empirical life, to build whom the Gurus suffered unparalleled 

martyrdoms, and who went through a century of struggle, involving 

extreme sacrifices and persecutions at the hands of the state were only a 

‘sub-tradition’ of the amorphous Sikh faith. Either the Guru Granth 

embodies doctrines of an amorphous faith or there was in existence another 

Scripture conveying the tenets of that amorphous faith. Oberoi’s statements 

in this para cross all bounds of sense when he states that the practices of 

the Khalsa or the statement in Rahit-namas embodied aspirations of the 

Khalsa and not the epitomic work and injunctions of the ten Gurus in 

creating the Sikh religion. For him the creation of the Sikh religion and 

the Sikh society by the Gurus, whom he calls the Khalsa,’ and its self 

perception of having a distinct religious identity, has no meaning unless 

the same is accepted by the Hindus or the rest of the population of the 

province. Another misstatement of Oberoi is that Sikhs comprised two 

sections, those who took Amrit or aspired to take Khande-Di-Pahul,and 

those who took Charan-Pahul. After 1708 A.D. when the Tenth Master 

passed away, who were the Sikhs getting the Charan Pahul and who was 

the Guru whose Charan Pahul they were getting to baptise them as Sikhs 

and where were those Sikhs and Gurus during the 18th Century, when 

Sikhs of the ten Masters, whether Amrit-Dhari or otherwise were fighting 

their life and death struggle. Evidently, these new Gurus and their 

followers like mushrooms of the rainy season appeared only in the rule of 

the Sarkar-i-Khalsa. It has already been noted that in the second half of 

the 19th Century this tribe of the Gurus and Sikhs

239 

continued their trade of having Hindu followers on grounds of their being 

Nanak-Putras through Lakhmi Das. And it is this very group who later 

appeared in the Amritsar Singh Sabha whom Oberoi calls genuine Sikhs 45 

and their practices in violation of the Sikh religion as authentic and valid, 

forming the ‘Great tradition’, and Sikhs of the ten Gurus as the ‘little or 

small tradition’. Such gross misstatements have hardly ever been made 

before in acadmic discussion. 

The next part of Oberoi’s essay is based on the validity of these 

premises and assumptions. For, he clearly argues that the Singh Sabhas 

that tried to revive the Sikhism of the Gurus (or the small tradition) by 

invoking the injunctions of Guru Granth, were innovators, thereby 

destroying Sikhism of the Charan Ka Pahul Sikhs and their Gurus (great 

tradition) whose history is non-existent in the earlier four centuries. In 

making such statements Oberoi has surpassed all records of “Gobellian 

truths”. 

All Oberoi’s inferences suggest that his study lacks reliable information, 

depth and objectivity, and he draws conclusions that have no rational 

basis. His bias and ignorance of Sikh religion and history are too obvious 

to be concealed. Vagueness and confusion are a specific feature of his 

style and description. It is an evident fault for any precise academic 

discussion. He says that from among Sikhs two elites were fostered by 

colonialism. He does not indicate as to who they were, what was the 

origin of the members of each. He concedes that many members of one 

came from families and castes who enjoyed high ritual standing. He admits 

that the members of the opposite group were from the lower socioeconomic 

strata, but they emerged as a power block the like of which ‘’had not 

existed in the Sikh society.” 46 He conceals the fact that the first elite, who 

had a higher social status, were exactly the ones who enjoyed favours and 

privileges from the British masters. And the others were persons drawn 

from what the Hindu society considered the lowest castes. He gives no 

reason whatsoever why the second group swept away the influence of the 

gilded gentry from among the Sikh masses. He conceals the truth, because 

if he told it, his entire house of cards he had structured would fall to 

pieces. The fact is that the second group with no socio-economic backing 

invoked the authority of Guru Granth, Sikh injunctions and the 

heroes of Sikh history, who had sacrificed their all to 

maintain the Sikh faith and its identity. The other group failed

240 

because their stand was wholly contrary to the Sikh scripture and four 

hundred years of Sikh history. Some of the big ones of this group were 

Nanak Putras through Lakhmi Das who had never been a part of the Sikh 

society of the earlier centuries. They failed because their stand was as 

spurious as the arguments of Oberoi that Singh Sabha innovators created 

a new Sikhism entirely different from the Sikh religion & society the Gurus 

had structured during earlier four centuries. 

It is very unfortunate that in making a misstatement or concealing a 

fact, Oberoi has no inhibitions, if it should serve his argument. An instance 

is his calling ‘Prem Samarag’ a midnineteenth century or a late Reht-nama. 

According to the established view of experts of Punjabi literature like 

Mohan Singh and S.S. Kohli and historians like J.S.Grewal and Randhir 

Singh ‘Prem Samarag’ is a production of the first quarter of the eighteenth 

century (near 1716-18) and it contains mention of Sikh practices of birth, 

marriage and death. 47 Oberoi conceals this fact because unless he did that 

the very basis of his paper alleging innovations on the part of Singh Sabha, 

and not revival of old Sikh practices, is completely knocked out. Use of 

such academic ethics is unfortunate. May be, Oberoi has followed Mcleod 

in the use of such tactics because Mcleod has also used the same method 

in avoiding the clear evidence of ‘Prem Samarag,. 48 It only records the 

existence of those practices in the beginning of the 18th Century. Actually, 

these distinct practices about birth, marriage, and death were in troduced 

during the time of the third and fourth Gurus. 49 

The issue in the paper is the commonness of Sikh religion and Hindu 

religion. The presence of numerous bards, geneaologists, story-tellers, 

ministerals, diviners and healers is hardly relevant since these categories 

catered to all members of the Punjab society composed of three religions. 

Nor is it relevant that myriad of literary traditions that were kept alive 

through oral texts. Islam is an exclusive religion with Quran as its sole 

guide. Similarly Sikhism has its authentkated and unalterable Scripture 

which has to be followed by every Sikh. Contravening its injunction is a 

clear aberration. Hinduism too has its scriptures but their interpretation 

and rites prescribed by custom are many. Hence reference to “little tradition” 

and practices or customs, social code, myths or legends unrealted to any 

religion, or not violaltive of Sikhism, have no meaning or 

relevance to our discussion. Here it is also necessary to state 

and emphasize that the category of “Sanatan Sikhs”,

241 

“Nanak Panthis” or like groups arose only in the 19th century when the 

umbrella of Sikh Raj became available. 50 They were never a part of the 

Sikh society either during the Guru period or during its struggle in the 

18th century. The Udasis because of the ascetic tradition of Baba Sri 

Chand, never joined the Sikh society. 51 Udasis did take charge of the 

virtually vacant Sikh shrines and continued there undisturbed because 

even the Mughals considered them not to be a part of the Sikh society. In 

fact, because of the Udasis being ascetic celebates and life negating, they 

remained distinctly demarcated from the Sikh society which is completely 

life affirming, socially responsible and anti-ascetic. 52 Rather, because of 

their being in many respects near the Hindu Synasis and sects in their 

practices, they became the instrument of introducing Hindu practices at 

the Sikh shrines. Accordingly, removal of the Hindu idols from the Sikh 

shrines was natural. Whereas there are numerous hymns in the Guru 

Granth, rejecting, gods and goddesses and worship of idols, 53 Oberoi has 

not quoted a single hymn sanctioning their worship or any historical 

evidence of Hindu idols at the ‘Sikh shrines during the Guru period. As 

to Udasis, the story about Baba Gurditta becoming an Udasi ascetic is a 

myth. The evidence of Mehma Parkash, Gurbilas Patshahi Chevin and 

Bansavli Nama (K.S. Chibber) shows that Baba Gurditta married twice, 

had two sons and expired following a hunting incident. 54 Even Parchian 

Seva Das, written by an Udasi author, nevet mentions Baba Gurditta 

becoming a part of the Udasi tradition, which remained, because of its 

ideology, always outside the Sikh Panth.lnfact, Chibber writing about Sikh 

Reht clearly records that Sikh, should never give up their religion and 

become Bairagis or ascetics, the two systems being contradictory. 

Oberoi’s statement that the Hindu-Sikh religious differences appeared 

only in the nineteenth Century can only be made by one who places an 

iron curtain between the Singh Sabha period and the four hundred years 

of earlier Sikh history. The history of different religions show that generally 

a religion has flourished the most under its own flag, but never has a 

religion gained a new shape or identity after the fall of its political umbrella. 

Nothing can be more contrary to facts and history then the statement that 

after the loss of Ranjit Singh’s empire, the Singh Sabha created the miracle 

of a new religio-cultural system, with new definitions and a new identity 

and consciousness, without the sanction of its religious past and scripture.

242 

Conclusion : 

Anyone acquainted with the Sikh religion and its four hundred 

years of history knows that after the fall of the Sikh Raj and during a 

lean period of Sikh history, the Singh Sabha did a commendable task 

in steering the community to a safe harbour, thereby enabling it not to 

lose its socio-religious moorings, But the sole weapon it used was to 

ask the Sikhs to draw their inspiration and strength from the profound 

and great base of their religion and tradition the Gurus had created. 

The wisdom of the Singh Sabha leaders lay in deciding not to fight on 

two fronts, the political front in relation to the British and the socioeonomic 

front facing the far too numerous Hindus and Muslims. The 

efforts and role of the Singh Sabha have to be understood and 

appreciated in their restoring the self confidence of the community 

and linking it firmly to their Gurus and religion. 

It is indeed amazing that Oberoi has tried to raise a structure, 

which has entirely no basis in facts, logic or history. The reason for 

raising this phantom, simply does not exist in the field of academics 

and has therefore, to be found outside it in the domain of what Oberoi 

calls “material, pragmatic or economic interests.” 

REFERENCES 

1. For details see two recent publications of W.H. Mcleod; The Sikhs (Columbia, 1988) 

and Who Is A Sikh? (Oxford, 1989). 

2. Rajiv A. Kapur, Sikh Separatism: The Politics of Faith (London, 1986). 

3. Macleod, W.H; Who Is A Sikh?, pp.6S n.10, 68 n.22, 69 n.26, 72 n.ll, 78 n.48, 79. 

n.49, 80n.50, 81 n.51. 

4. Oberoi, H.5; From Ritual to Counter- Ritual; Rethinking the Hindu-Sikh Question, 

1884-1915 in O’Connell, T. Joseph et.al. Sikh History and Religion in Twentieth 

Century (Toronto, 1988), pp.136-137. 

5. Daljeet Singh; Essays On The Authenticity Of Kartarpuri Bir and The integrated 

Logic and Unity of Sikhism (Patiala, 1987), pp.1,88. 

6. “Any student of Sikhism and Sikh society cannot fail to notice how the Sikh Gurus, 

especially GuruNanak, Guru Arjun and Guru GobindSingh, were very sensitively 

awake to and critical of not only the social but also the political abuses and consequent 

miseries of people, which is another aspect of their attitude of social criticism and 

protest.” 

Ray, Niharranjan; The Sikh Gurus and The Sikh Society (Patiala, 1970), p.68. 

7. "feft ;funkok j'Jhn? fet e{V/ s[N/ gkfb . 

j[efw oikJh ubDk BkBe fbfynk Bkfb .." 

Gpm Granth, p.l.

8. ";u/ s/o/ yzv ;u/ pqjwzv .. 

;u/ s/o/ b'n ;u/ nkeko .. 

;u/ s/o/ eoD ;oE phuko .. 

aaaaaaa aaaaaa aaaaaa 

;uh s/oh e[dos ;u/ gks;kfj .. 

aaaaaaa aaaaaa aaaaaa 

fJj ir[ ;u/ eh j? e'mVh ;u? ek ftfu tk;[ .." 

Guru Granth p.63. 

9 "ftfu d[BhnK ;/t ewkJhn? 

sK dorj p?;D{ gkJhn? .." 


10. “It is by woman, the condemned one, that we are conceived, and from her that we are 

born; it is with her that we are betrothed and married. 

............ 

Why should we call her inferior who gives birth to great men?” Asa-di- Var, quoted by Teja 

Singh; Essays In Sikhism (Lahore, 1944), p.65; 

j[ew/ Xosh ;kihnB ;Zuh Xow;kbk .. 


243 

wkB; iBw[ d[bG r[ow[fy gkfJnk .. 


11. “Think not of race, abase thyself, and attain to salvation” 

Nanak, Adi Granth, Sarang Rag (trans.) Cunningham, ).D; History of the Sikhs 

(new Delhi, 1966), p.334; 

“The heart gets impure with greed, and the tongue with lying: 

The eyes get impure by staring at another’s wealth, his wife or her beauty; 

The ears get impure by deavouring the slander of others. 

Nanak, these impurities lead the soul of man bound to hell. 

All other impurity supposed to be contracted from touch is superstitious. 

Birth and death are ordained; we come and go by His will. 

All eating and drinking, which God gave as sustenance, is pure. 

Nanak, those who have realised this through the Guru do not believe in that 

impurity.”. 

Asa-di-Var (trans.) 

Teja Singh, Essays In Sikhism (Lahore, 1944),pp.16-17 

12. “Men discriminate not and quarrel over meat eating; they do not know what 

is flesh and what is non-flesh or in what lies sin and what is not sin.” Guru Granth, 

pp.1289-90. 

13. House-holders and hermits are equal, whoever calls on the name of the Lord.” 

Asa Ragni (Nanak from Guru Granth) (Trans.) Cunningharn; op.cit.,p.334; 

Touch not the feet of those, who call themselves Gurus and pirs, and go about begging. 

They who eat the fruit of their own labour and share it with others are the

. poeple, Nanak, who have found the right way.” Var Sarang, (Trans.) Teja Singh; op.cit. p.24; 

‘There can be no love of God without active service.” Japuji, (Trans.) Ibid. p.20. 

14. “Numerous Muhammads have there been and multitudes of Brahmas 

244 

Vishnus, and Si vas, 

‘ Thousands of Pirs and Prophets, and tens of thousands of Saints and Holy men; But the 

Chief of Lords is the One Lord, the true name of God. O Nanak! of God, His qualities, 

without end, beyond reckoning, who can understand Nanak,” Ratan Mala Cunningham; 

op.cit., p.330. 

15. Daljeet Singh; Sikhism-A Comparative Study of its Theology and Mysticism (New Delhi, 1979), 

pp. 194-97; 

Dhillon, G.S; Researches in Sikh Religion and History (Chandigarh, 1989), p.2. 

16. Guru Granth, p.l412. 

17. Macauliffe, M.A; The Sikh Religion, Vol.IlI, pp. 7-8. 

The second story also concerns Guru Arjan when he deprecated the Sakhi Sarvar practice 

of preparing a big cake and presenting it before the priest who read Durud (a verse from 

Quran) and then kept the cake, giving only a marginal part to the devotees. The Guru says, 

“Without the true Guru they must sit and watch without eating until the Durud, is read.” 

Macauliffe, Vol.III, p.419 

18. Teja Singh; Sikhism: Its Ideals and Institutions (Calcutta, 1964), pp.80-81. 

19. In order to emphasize the complete independence and separateness of the Sikh 

ideology, Guru Gobind Singh introduced the Nash doctrine, involving Kartnash, Kulnash, 

Bharamnash, Dharamnash and Karamnash i.e. forsaking of all those beliefs, prejudices and 

traditions that stood in the way of the sole worship of the Supreme Being. 

Cunningham, J.D; Op.cit. p.64; 

Bannerjee,I.B; Evolution of the Kha/sa Vol.II (Calcutta,1963), p.1l6; 

Daljeet Singh; op.cit.,60; . 

Dhillon, G.S; Religion and Politics: The Sikh perspective (Chandigarh, 1989), pp.17-18. 

20. Oberoi; op.cit., p.137. 

21. Ibid. 

22. Ibid. 

23. Gupta, Hari Ram; History of the Sikhs, Vol.II, pp.39-45; 

Also Vol.I, p.281. 

24. Kohli, Sita Ram; Foreword to Umdat-ut-Tawarikh of Sohan Lal Suri, Daftar Iv, pii. 

25. Devi Prasad, Pandit; Gulshan-i-Punjab (Lucknow, 1872), p.224 

Also see Cunningham; op.cit.,p. 301 

26. Dhillon, G.S; Character and Impact of The Singh Sabha Movement on the History of the Punjab(Ph.D. 

dissertation, Punjabi University, Patiala, 1972), pp. 28-29. 

27. Malcolm, John; Sketch of the Sikhs (Calcutta, 1810), pp.220. 

28. Ibid pp. 26-61. 

29. Dhillon, G.S; Researches in Sikh Religion and History (Chandigarh, 1989), p.80.

30. Oberoi,op.cit.p.140. 

31. Ibid. 

32. Ibid. 

33. Ibid. 

34. Daljeet 5ingh; op.cit., pp.194-197; 

Dhillon, G.S; Religion And Politics: The Sikh Perspective (Chandigarh, 1989), pp.l-2. 

35. Ibid. 

36. Oberoi;op.cit.,p.141. 

37. Mann, Jasbir 5ingh and Saraon, Harbans Singh; Advanced Studies in Sikhism 

(Patiala, 1989), p.28 

38. Oberoi; op.cit., p.l42. 

39. Ibid., p.l43. 

40. Ibid., p.151. 

41. Dhillon, G.5. Researches in Sikh Religion and History (Chandigarh, 1989), p.79. 

245 

42. Oberoi; op.cit., p.l46 

43. Ibid. 

44. Ibid., p. 147 

45. Ganda Singh; Kukian Di Vithiya (Amritsar, 1946), p.36; 

Avtar Singh Vihria, also stressed the need for human Gurus and declared that Bedis, 

Bhallas, Trehans and Sod his deserved special reverence due to their descent from the Sikh 

Gurus. For details see Vihiria, Avtar 5ingh; Sikh Dharam Tatdarshan (Lahore, 1894), 

pp.20-25, 55-60; 

Hari Singh, Bhai; Prem Parkash (Amritsar, n.d.) P. 2-3 Vihria, Avtar Singh; Shok Pattar 

(Lahore, 1905), p.38; Khalsa Akhbar,Lahore, March 26,1897; 

Vihiria, Avtar Singh; Khalsa Sudhar Taru (Amritsar, 1894), pp. 252-57; 

Also Gurdarshan Shastar (Amritsar, 1916), p. 157. 

46. Oberoi; o.p.cit., p.147. 

47. Ibid. p.155, 11..46. 

48. Mohan Singh; An Introduction to Punjabi Literature (Amritsar, 1951) pp.121-42; Kohli, 5.S; 

Punjabi Sahit Da Itihas (Ludhiana, 1955), p.216; 

Grewal, J.5; Prem Suntarag : A Theory of Sikh Social Order in The Sikh Review, September, 

1989; 

RandhirSingh; Prem Samarag Granth (Patiala, 1953), p.9. 

49. Dhillon, Balwant Singh; Guru Amar Das And The Mughal State in the Journal of Sikh 

Studies, Vol.XI, No.ll, August, 1984. (Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar) p.88. 

50. Khalsa Akhbar, Lahore, March 26, 1897, Vahiria, Avtar Singh; Sikh Dharam 

Tatdarshan (Lahore, 1894), pp.21-24, 50-60 

51. “Sri Ch and, the son of Nanak, justified his father’s fears, and became the founder of the 

Hindu sect of ‘Udasis’, a community indifferent to the concerns of this world”. 

Cunningham, ).0., op.cit. p.43 

52. Ibid. pp. 44-45;

Malcolm; op.cit., p.27. 

53. Guru Granth, pp.310 and 1102; 

246 

The author of Dabistan, who visited Punjab in the times of the Sixth and Seventh Gurus, 

says about the Sikhs, ‘The Sikhs of Guru Nanak condemn idolatry and believe that all the 

Gurus are identical with Nanak. They do not read the Hindu Mantras, nor do they pay any 

regard to their shrines. They do not believe in Hindu Avtars and do not study Sanskrit, 

which according to Hindus is the language of the gods. The Sikhs do not have any faith in 

the ritual and ceremonies enjoined by the Hindu Shastras. A learned Hindu named Partap 

Mal, seeing that his son was inclined towards Islam said to him, ‘There is no need for you 

to turn Muhammedan. If you want to get freedom in eating and drinking you may better 

join Sikhism.’ Quoted by Teja Singh;Sikhism; Its Ideals and Institutions (Calcutta, 1964), pp. 

80-81. 

54. Bhalla, Sarup Das, Mehma Parkash (ed.) Lamba, Gobind Singh and Khazan Singh; Part 11 

(Patiala, 1971) pp. 527- 31; 

Gurbilas Patsahi Chevin (Patiala, 1970), p. 511; 

Chibber, Kesar Singh; Bansavli Nama Dasam Patshian ka in Parkh (ed.) 

S.S. Kohli, Research Bulletin of Punjabi Language And Literature Vol.II, 1972, Panjab University, 

Chandigarh, pp. 70-72.

16 

THE SIKH RULE AND RANJIT SINGH 

GURDARSHAN SINGH DHILLON 

247 

The reign of Maharaja Ranjit Singh has been the subject of 

absorbing interest for scholars and historians but, by and large, they 

have concentrated their attention on the military and political 

achievements of the Maharaja. No doubt, he was a great military 

genius. His political objectives could not have been achieved without 

his outstanding military ability, but this is an incomplete epithet to 

describe him adequately. For, considering the times, the Indian 

background and the historical circumstances in which he appeared, 

the great edifice which he created and the manner in which he fostered 

it were, we believe, primarily due to the religious background, approach 

and tolerance, and the catholicity of Sikh ethos in which Ranjit Singh 

was born and brought up. Otherwise he would have remained a mere 

war-lord and an adventurer. Nurtured in the Sikh tradition and 

unequalled for the daring and originality of his many-sided genius, the 

Maharaja gave the Punjab four decades of peace, prosperity and 

progress, the benefits of which were enjoyed equally by all the 

communities. This paper is an endeavour to study the salient features 

of the Khalsa Raj under Ranjit Singh and to evaluate his place in the 

history of this region. 

The character and the nature of his polity is a subject of 

controversy among scholars. Many writers like J.D. Cunningham 1 and 

Sita Ram Kohli 2 ascribe to Ranjit Singh high and noble objectives on 

the basis of which he carved out his kingdom, which became the 

source of power and pride for the Sikhs. Many others like Prinsep 3 

and N.K. Sinha 4 have characterised his polity as absolute despotism, 

which was the just outcome of his military enterprise. 

Kingdoms and empires have almost invariably been founded and 

maintained on the strength of arms. Ranjit Singh had as good a right 

to carve out a kingdom for himself and his people through

248 

the exercise of arms as any other ruler before or after him. In the ultimate 

analysis, the fundamental criterion to measure a ruler’s greatness should 

be the manner in which he wields his authority. To what end does he use 

his power, for the furtherance of his own personal ambitions or for the 

welfare of his subjects through the projection of eternal values of truth, 

goodness, justice and freedom? This is the fundamental criterion which 

we shall use and which we feel should be the only criterion for any kind of 

modern historiography. In short, our test should be not how an Ashoka or 

a Changez Khan gets his power but how he uses it and the net results 

which he achieves. 

Both Carlyle 5 and Macaulay 6 lodged their protest against history being 

made a mere record of ‘court and camp’, of royal intrigue and state rivalry, 

of pageants or processions or chivalric encounters. According to Carlyle 

the essence of history does not lie in laws, Senate houses or battle-fields 

but in the tide of thought and action- the world of existence that brightens, 

glooms, blossoms and fades. What gives meaning to history is not merely 

the exploits and aggressive enterprises of the conquerors and kings, but 

how the victorious sword is used during the times of peace. A ruler’s 

greatness lies in the vision he projects for the future, the message he leaves 

for posterity, the direction and dimension that he imparts to history. What 

mankind needs is peace, progress, prosperity and a harmonious social 

order. A ruler can best be judged in terms of Arnold Toynbee’ s well 

known historical formula of ‘Challenge and response’ 7 . The correct 

measure of a ruler is the vision - in terms of initiative, depth and sinceritythat 

he has in responding to the need of times i.e. whether he is an Ashoka 

or a Changez Khan, a Lenin or a Stalin. 

In view of the above criterion we shall explain in this study how 

Ranjit Singh employed his power and how other rulers of his times, great 

or small, directed that power to different ends. For this purpose we shall 

also indicate very briefly the ideological background which threw him up, 

shaped his character and governed his perceptions and personality. 

According to Lepel Griffin, “Ranjit Singh was so completely a product of 

the Sikh theocracy and so embodied the spirit of the Khalsa, that no 

account of his character and. career would be complete without a 

description of the religious system of the Sikhs.” 8 

Ideological Background: Sikhism arose in the sixteenth century as a new 

revolutionary ideology opposed in its fundamentals to

249 

the contemporary and earlier religions. It challenged on the one hand the 

fanaticism and religious hypocrisy of the priestly class 9 and on the other 

hand the religio-political oppression of the contemporary rulers. 10 Guru 

Nanak’s rejection of the Varna Ashrma Dharma and of the cult of gods 

and goddesses 11 ‘and his emphasis on the unity of mankind 12 and oneness 

or God 13 constituted a daring and a glaring departure from orthodox 

Hinduism. He challenged the conventional yardsticks of religion and 

society of his times by denouncing asceticism, 14 idolatry 15 ceremonialism 

and the role of the intermediary agency between God and man. 16 He 

exhorted people not to shun the battle of life, not to renounce their hearths 

and homes, not to retreat to the private solitude of the hills and caves but 

to live the life of full blooded householders. He introduced a conspicuous 

note of world and life-affirmation in his teachings by bridging the gulf 

between the spiritual and the empirical realms of human existence. 17 The 

significance of the Guru’s message lies in emphasising the role of religion 

as an instrument of liberation, personal as well as social. In the integrated 

vision of the Guru, religion became a potential basis of freedom for man 

- freedom from tyranny, freedom from injustice and freedom from ruthless 

religious conversion. The Guru thus laid the foundations of a Catholic or 

liberal religion, which was not a mere system of philosophy or a set of 

abstract ideas, concerning God and the mystery of life and death. It was a 

discipline, a way of life which infused spiritual and social vitality in its 

followers and brought about a far-reaching transformation in their outlook. 

The Gurus believed that religion could be an effective vehicle of promoting 

the values of social harmony, love, equality, freedom and brotherhood of 

man. They aimed at a social revolution that would lead to the emergence 

of an egalitarian, forward-looking and just social order. 18 

Sikh movement was not only an egalitarian social order; it was a 

plebian political revolution as well; but the pressure of circumstances 

prevented it from assuming spectacular dimensions. Nevertheless, the 

rise of the Khalsa, the martyrdom of the Gurus, the saga of Sikh resistance 

to the Mughals and Afghan Invaders carried a new message of hope and 

kindled that spark in human nature that impelled men to seek out a better 

and saner path for mankind. People looked with eager eyes to the rise of 

a messiah who would finally deliver them from socio-political perseuction 

of the contemporary rulers and tyranny and oppression of the

250 

invaders. 

The first bid for establishing the Khalsa Raj was made by Banda 

Singh Bahadur but he did not last long. Banda had an indomitable spirit 

but, faced with the over-whelming might of the Mughal empire, he could 

not succeed in liberating the country from the oppressive rule. He and his 

740 followers were tortured to death. 19 However, Banda deserves credit 

for laying down the foundations of the political sovereignty of the Sikhs. 

On the Diwali day of October 27, 1761, the Sikhs assembled at Amritsar 

and passed a national resolution, called the Gurmatta, to liberate Punjab 

from the foreign invaders and seize all their strongholds. 20 

The Sikh Misls, which emerged on the scene, no doubt, had a great 

political potential but through their internecine quarrels, they had reduced 

each other to a state of political dream of Khalsa Raj. George Forster, a 

traveller who was a keen observer of things remarked; “We may see some 

ambitious chief led on by his genius and success and absorbing the power 

of his associates display from the ruins of their commonwealth the 

standard of monarchy”. 21 

Ranjit Singh was a characteristic product of the Sikh tradition and 

was also the leader, who had come to deliver the goods. Thus the emergence 

of Khalsa Raj under him was neither an accident nor a freak of history. It 

was a unique historical phenomenon, the outcome and the flowering of a 

prolonged struggle for capturing political power and must be understood 

in its true perspective. Bir Singh, a contemporary of Ranjit Singh in his 

poetical composition, Bara Maha Guru Gobind Singh Ji Ka, refers to the 

period of socio-political turmoil gone through by the peasant-soldiers or 

the Singhs, who had become Sardars (rulers) with the Guru’s grace. 22 

Ranjit Singh’s Career: Ranjit Singh became the chief of the Sukerchakia 

Misl at the age of eleven years in 1791. In his young days, he was an 

excellent soldier and the beau-ideal of youth. One of his ancestors Budh 

Singh had been one of the Khalsas baptized by Guru Gobind Singh. 23 He 

found the Punjab strife-ridden and chaotic, a loose confederacy of powerful 

Misl Chiefs, lacking the corporate spirit and indulging in petty intrigues 

and dissensions. In the absence of a strong central authority, the state had 

become a prey to the Afghan invaders on the one hand and to the Marattha 

and the British designs on the other. Ranjit Singh brought the Misl chiefs 

into submission, fired his people with a corporate zeal and led them 

from victory to victory so as to galvanise a whole people with 

a sense of collective triumph. ‘He avenged the innumerable

251 

defeats, humiliations and depredations suffered by India over the centuries 

at the hands of the Afghan invaders by conquering part of the Indian 

territory wrested by them and more than that, by being an arbiter in the 

fate of Afghanistan herself. 24 He rose to be the ruler of a powerful state 

extending from Tibet to Sind and from Khyber pass to the Satluj. With his 

capture of Lahore he sealed the Khyber pass for ever, thus putting an end 

to the tyranny and oppression of the invaders. He was both feared and 

respected by the British, who ruled over the rest of the sub-continent. It 

has been acknowledged that in fulfilling his ambitions, Ranjit Singh used 

the barest minimum of force necessary. Baron Charles Hugel records, 

“Never perhaps was so large an empire founded by one man with so little 

criminality; and when we consider the country and the uncivilised people 

with whom he had to deal, his mild and prudent Government must be 

regarded with feelings of astonishment.’ 25 Similarly Captain Murray says, 

“It is difficult to suppress admiration in contemplating the career of such 

a man, who, with so many disadvantages, succeeded, with so few crimes 

in elevating himself from a simple Sardar to be the sovererign of a large 

kingdom, including Hindus and Mohammadans, as well as the Sikhs, the 

only state in India, not substantially under British dominion.” 26 Even Henry 

T. Prinsep, who is a critic of Ranjit Singh, acknowledges that the 

Maharaja’s career was “stained by no bloody executions and by much 

fewer crimes.” 27 

The Sikh Raj : In Sikhism the inward and the outward, the spiritual 

and the empirical are inextricably interwoven. 28 The Gurus believed that 

a combination of religion and politics was essential to achieve the ethical 

ideals of human equality, freedom and justice. There was something 

positive and constructive in this combination which could abolish some 

of the worst evils of societv and open new vistas of peace, progress and 

harmony. A sound social order could be built and preserved only through 

moral and ethical imperatives and by abiding values of tolerance, humility, 

charity and compassion that constitute Dharma. 

Ranjit Singh built his rule on religious foundations. He referred to his 

Government as Sarkar-i-Khalsa, which derived its legitimacy from the 

Khalsa or the Commonwealth - the mystic entity in which resided all 

sovereign powers pertaining to the Sikh community. He referred to his 

Darbar as Darbar-i-Khalsa. He never arrogated to himself the title or 

powers of a despot. He attributed every success to the favour of God and 

he styled himself

252 

and the poeple collectively as the Khalsa or Commonwealth of Gobind. 

Everything was meant for the benefit of his subjects, including the Sikhs, 

Hindus and Muslims because the Khalsa aims at ‘Sarbat da Bhala’ (welfare 

of entire humanity). His state salutation was Wahe-i-Guru Ji Ka Khalsa, 

Wahe-i-Guru Ji Ki Fateh (Khalsa belongs to God and its victory is the victory 

of God). He was often heard saying that he was nothing more than a mere 

Nagara (drum) of Guru Gobind Singh. He would say that while the literal 

meaning of Ranjit - the meaning which his father had apparently intended 

while choosing his name in preference to his original name, ‘Budh Singh’ 

- was victorious, its real significance to his mind lay in that it had been the 

name of one of the drums of Guru Gobind Singh. 29 Both the Guru’s 

drum and he himself announced the victory of the Khalsa, but were in 

themselves nothing but instruments. On every Vaisakhi, he would go to 

Amritsar and make his salutations at the haloed centre, where the Gurus 

had inspired their followers and had laid the foundations of the Sikh society. 

His official seal bore the words - Akal Sahai (May God help). The 

term also indicated that the Khalsa did not owe its allegiance to any earthly 

power, and that he acted in total devotion to Akal (The Timeless Reality). 

Similarly, the coin of Ranjit Singh does not mention any particular person 

or king, except Guru Nanak as the true Emperor of both the worlds, 

spiritual and empirical. His coinage which was called Nanak Shahi bore 

the inscription, “Hospitality, the sword, victory and conquest unfailing 

from Guru Nanak to Guru Gobind Singh.” He never struck any coin in 

his own name. He listened daily to the readings from the Guru Granth. 

On one occassion when the Akal Takhat took exception to a moral lapse 

on the part of the Maharaja, he humbly surrendered to the dictates of the 

Supreme Sikh Authority, the Akal Takhat, and readily bared his back for 

receiving public flogging as chastisement for his un-Sikh like failing. 

Born and brought up in the Sikh faith, Ranjit Singh was fully 

conversant with the catholicity of the Sikh tradition, which left its visible 

impact on his outlook and policy. Religious bigotry, he knew was 

incompatible with Sikhism. The ideas of unity of God, universal 

brotherhood and welfare of all (Sarbat Da Bhala) which summed up the 

basic tenets of Sikhism, enabled him to restore complete religious harmony 

in his kingdom. Here it will be worthwhile to compare him with the great 

Maratha ruler Shivaji, who had directed his power to the defence of 

Brahmins, cow and

253 

caste and was known by the title of Gou Brahman Pritpalika (Defender of 

Orthodox Hindu faith). 30 All his ministers, except the Commander-in- 

Chief, belonged to the Brahmin caste. His reign marked the triumphant 

establishment of an aggressive Hindu Swarajya (militant political 

expression of orthodox Hinduism). 31 

Ranjit Singh did not proclaim Sikhism to be the state religion nor did 

he make any conscious efforts to propagate his religion. His catholicity of 

religious outlook was reflected in his according due respect to all religions. 

This was fully in consonance with the principle of universal love and 

equality propounded by the Sikh Gurus. Sikhism did not have an ordained 

priestly class that could rule in the name of Sikh religion. But the religiopolitical 

views of the Gurus could be inferred from the Gurbani and the 

lives and deeds of the Gurus. In the vision of the Sikh Gurus, a sane 

human society was essentially a plural one in which each community was 

afforded the opportunity to work out its genius to the fullest possibilities 

and potentialities. The Sikh Gurus who suffered martyrdoms to uphold 

the religious liberties of the people, laid repeated emphasis on the unity 

of mankind in their Bani. Ranjit Singh held fast to the values of justice, 

freedom and human dignity, not through any defined statements or religious 

vows or policy pronouncements but through stark deeds. There is no 

denying the fact that it was because of his Sikh religious background that 

he proved to be a more enlightened exponent of humanitarianism and 

tolerance than his contemporary emperors and kings or even some of the 

so-called modern secular or democratic rulers. 

The spirit of forbearance and moderation displayed by Ranjit Singh 

was in sharp contrast with the inhuman practices of the Mughal rulers, 

their plunder, greed, devastations and forced conversions. The Muslim 

state in India, being entirely subordinate to the Church, had believed in 

waging a religious war (Jehad) against the infidels. It aimed at stamping out 

all forms of pluralism whether political, religious or social and demanded 

total conformism in faith, belief, form and action. The ideal of the Muslim 

state was the conversion of the entire population to Islam and the extinction 

of every form of dissent. Accordingly non-Muslims were not looked upon 

as equal citizens of the State. In order to secure the right of exercising 

their religion, they had to suffer political and social disabilities and pay toll 

tax (Jazia). Under Aurangzeb there was large scale destruction of non- 

Muslim religious temples and other religious institutions in northern India.

254 

The Muslim rule in Europe was, without doubt, liberal compared 

to the contemporary Christian states but its limitation was that it had to 

abide by the strict rules of the Shariat which was sometimes interpreted 

arbitrarily by bigoted Mullas resulting in serious socio-political 

discrimination. Of course the imposition of ]aziya on non-Muslims was 

an accepted principle under the Shariat. The crusade or Jehad against the 

non-believers or non-Muslim states with a view to spreading Islam was 

also an accepted principle of Islamic polity. 

In the pre-Muslim India, the four fold division of Hindu society was 

looked upon as divinely ordained. Manu desired that a king should zealously 

guard and uphold this caste-based division. As a result, Brahmins came to 

enjoy a special status and laid claim to various immunities from the 

workings of the common law, even in matters of taxation and justice. In 

addition to those immunities, they enjoyed the right to collect from the 

masses a regular tax called Brahman A vimasti, the only logic behind it 

being their claim to divine favour as a reward for their good deeds done in 

their past lives. 3232 Macrindle, J.W.; Ancient India As Described by Magathenes and Arian 

Evidently, there was no equality before law. The state, too, became a 

party to the various discriminations made against the lower castes in the 

name of a divinely ordained caste system. 33 Not only the perpetuation of 

acute and serious caste discrimination against the Shudras and lower castes 

and maintenance of the supremacy of Brahmins as the sole interpreters 

of Dharma, was the primary duty of a Hindu King, but the manner in 

which the Buddhists were treated, involving their virtual elimination from 

the Indian sub-continent is a part of history. 34 It is very relevant to point 

out that in contemporary Europe of the seventeenth and eighteenth 

centuries Jewish ghetto, like discrimination against the untouchables, was 

an established institution. In the times just preceding the Muslim invasion 

of India, the Hindu orthodoxy was seen launching a religious crusade 

against the Buddhists. The holy Boddhi tree at Gaya was burnt. 35 A Hindu 

temple was erected on the ruins of a Buddhist monastry. A large scale 

massacre of Buddhists was ordered. Such a policy resulted in the alienation 

of the Buddhists from the Hindus and eventually led to their virtual 

disappearance from India. 36 

As against what we have stated about the Muslim rulers and Hindu 

kings, the most striking feature of the policy of Ranjit Singh was the 

equal respect shown to all faiths. He did not treat the Sikhs

255 

as a privileged class and did not place any disabilities on his non-Sikh 

subjects. Nor did he interfere with the religious and cultural life, of other 

communities. They were allowed freely to practise their religions without 

payment of any special tax. There were no discriminating tariffs. His policy 

was free from bigotry or any kind of narrowness of outlook and racial 

arrogance, inherent in the traditional Hindu system of caste. His 

contemporary rulers, the Peshawas could not be entirely free from the 

shackles of casteism and Brahamnical chauvinism. Between caste and 

caste they could not always maintain the balance evenly. 37 

Ranjit Singh gave complete freedom of expression and worship 

to all his subjects. Under him careers were thrown open to men of talent, 

irrespective of their religion, caste or class. Even when he bestowed his 

favours, he endeavoured to maintain an even balance among Hindus, 

Sikhs and Muslims. Far from demolishing the religious places of Muslims 

or Hindus, he was in fact generous in his endownments to the Hindus and 

the Muslim places of worship. He gave liberal grants to the Muslim places 

of worship. He gave liberal grants to the learned Muslims and paid due 

respect to the fakirs and derveshs of his kingdom. He repaired the Muslim 

monuments. The Sunehri Masjid in Kashmiri Bazar of Lahore, which had 

been earlier in the possession of the nonMuslims was restored to the 

Muslims and the tombs of Hazrat Data Ganja and Monj-i-Darya were 

repaired at the state expense. A Muslim calligraphist, who had transcribed 

the Quran in an exquisite hand and did not find a buyer to pay the price of 

his life long labour and was ready to leave for Hyderabad to sell the Quran 

to the Nizam, was paid Rupees one lac by the Maharaja. He got the holy 

books of the Muslims and the Hindus translated into other languages. He 

participated in the festivals of Id, Holi, Dusshehra, Baisakhi and Basant 

with the same enthusiasm as others. His Hindu, Muslim and Sikh subjects 

reciprocated these gestures by praying for him on important occassions - 

when he launched a new campaign, when he won a new victory, when he 

had a hair breadth escape, when he was ill, or when he recovered from 

illness. 

The minority status of the Sikh ruler was no handicap in commanding 

allegiance from his Muslim and Hindu subjects. Surjit Hans’s argument 

that the Maharaja on account of his minority status perforce had to 

strengthen his bonds with the Hindus and pacify the Muslims, 38 is 

untenable. Invaders who came, too often, always imposed their minority 

rule through sheer

256 

force. In the bakcground that the Sikhs had suffered immensely and 

immediately before the Sikh rule, and the community had gone through 

one of the worst persecutions at the hands of the Muslim rulers, it is 

extremely creditable for the Maharaja not only to give equal treatment to 

his Muslim subjects but also fully to trust his Muslims employees manning 

the highest posts in his administration. In the medieval period, monarchs 

were not dependent on the votes of their subjects and the question of 

majority or minority was hardly relevant. For the Muslim rulers, when 

they chose, could be cruelly intolerant and oppressive towards the majority 

of their subjects. In this context it is idle to indicate that Ranjit Singh’s 

policies towards the Muslims were related to any consideration of 

pacification, of the majority community who were mostly converts and 

were only marginally a majority. 39 Besides, fake postures towards the 

Muslims could never beget their trust in a manner and to the extent the 

policy of Ranjit Singh begot. The revolts of Muslim generals during the 

Muslim history in India have been a common feature. It, therefore, speaks 

volumes for the humanity of Ranjit Singh that none of his Muslim Generals 

or fallen foes revolted, in fact, they loyally fought for the Sikh kingdom to 

the last. In this context, the observation of Surjit Hans looks so meaningless 

and puerile. Ranjit Singh solved the problem of multiple faiths by a policy 

of large-hearted liberalism. This liberalism, it may be reiterated, had its 

roots in the Sikh faith itself. As a matter of fact, Ranjit Singh’s faith and 

Sikh ethos guided him inevitably along this path. 

During his reign, there were no outbursts of communal fanaticism, 

no forced conversions, no attempts at bloody revenge, no language 

tensions, no second class citizens, no repression, no bloodsheds, no 

executions and no tortures. Punishments were humane. There was no 

capital punishment which even the modern governments have not been 

able to abolish. It was not awarded even when there was an attempt on 

the life of the Maharaja himself. Such a thing is unknown in monarchical 

history, much less in the rule of a despot. It is therefore both incorrect and 

unfair to call his rule autocratic, despotic, or personalised when it is seen 

that in modem India Mahatma Gandhi’s assassin was hanged. W.G. 

Osborne says that, “except in actual open warfare he has never been 

known to take life, though his own has been attempted more 

than once, and his reign will be found freer from any striking 

acts of cruelty and oppression than those of many more civilized

257 

monarchs.” 40 It is to his credit that during his reign of forty years he did 

not sentence even one person to death. He bore no rancour against his 

Muslim predecessors who were responsible for the persecution of the 

Sikh Gurus and had unleashed a reign of terror on the Sikh community. 

Ranjit Singh’s employment policy reflected the basic liberal and 

humanitarian teaching of Sikhism. The highest posts in his Government 

were as open to Muslims as to the Sikhs and the Hindus. Fakir Aziz-ud- 

Din was his most trusted minister. Fakir-ud-Din was the Governor of 

Lahore and was one of the closest confidants of the Maharaja. There 

were many Muslims occupying high positions as Governors of provinces 

and forts, and commanders of the armies. 41 Muslims on their part proved 

worthy of the trust. Poet Shah Muhamad shed tears over the fall of the 

Sikh kingdom. Similarly, the Maharaja bore no malice towards the Hindus. 

He overlooked so many past instances of Hindu betrayal to the Sikhs, 

whether it be that of Chandu Shah, who had played a role in the persecution 

of Guru Arjan 42 or Hill Rajput Rajas, who had invited the imperial forces 

to suppress Guru Gobind Singh and his followers. 43 or the role of Gangu 

in betraying the two younger sons of Guru Gobind Singh and passing 

them on to the custody of the ruler of Sirhind, execution of whom later 

invited the wrath of Banda involving the silck of Sirhind. The other 

instances of Hindu treachery were that of Diwan Lakhpat Rai, who along 

with Yahiyya Khan, was instrumenta1 in the destruction of the Darbar 

Sahib 44 and Kabli Mal, who in his capacity as Governor of Lahore had 

defiled the sanctity of the sacred tank of Darbar Sahib on the instructions 

of Ahmed Shah Abdali. 45 The Sikhs had resented the hostility of the 

Pathans and the Mughals and the treason of the Hindus, who often became 

the willing partners of Imperial forces and invaders in suppressing and 

oppressing the Sikhs. Ranjit Singh forgot an this and entrusted talented 

Hindus with the highest responsibilities of the State. Misr Beli Ram was 

the Revenue minister of the State, while Diwan Bhawani Das, Diwan 

Ganga Ram and Diwan Dina Nath were respectively Pay Master General, 

Accountant General and Comptroller General of the Lahore Darbar. Hill 

Dogras Dhian Singh, Khushal Singh and Gulab Singh were 

appointed to the positions of supreme authority in the Civil 

apparatus of the Maharaja’s government. Brahmins like Teja Singh and 

Lal Singh were granted such influence, as eventually raise

258 

them to the supreme command of the Sikh army. Diwan Mokham Chand 

was made the commander of the Khalsa army. In fact, historians have 

strongly criticised Ranjit Singh’s over indulgence towards or misplaced 

trust in the Hill Dogras or the Purbia Generals, who in crisis betrayed the 

Sikhs and became the principal cause of the fall of the Sikh kingdom. 46 

Treatment to Fallen Enemies: In dealing with his fallen enemies, Ranjit 

Singh displayed unexampled generosity. Not only the Sikh nobles and 

Sardars but also the deposed Muslim and Hindu nobles were provided 

with Jagirs and treated equally and generously. In fact, Maharaja’s treatment 

of the fallen Muslim foes was unprecedented. The defeated Afghan 

Governor Sultan Muhammad Khan was given a Jagir of Rupees three 

lacs as revenues of the areas comprising Kohatand Hashat Nagar. When 

he conquered Kasur from Navab Kutub-ud-Din, he gave him the jagir of 

Mamdot which brough a revenue of 190,000 rupees a year. In the same 

way, when he conquered Multan he granted a big jagir in Sharkpur and 

Naulakhe to the Nawab’ s sons. 47 He honoured the sentiments of his 

Muslim subjects and maintained the established Muslim tradition of Stategrants 

to Ulemas and holymen. There is an important entry in the Diary - 

News of Ranjit Singh’s court-25th August, 1825,”The Kazis, Sayads, 

Alamas and Fakirs of Peshawar were given good khilats and each was 

given a jagir for his maintenance when the Maharaja annexed Peshawar.” 48 

When the victory procession of the Maharaja passed through the streets 

of Peshawar, he issued strict instructions to his Sardars to observe ethical 

restraint in keeping with the Sikh tradition, not to damage any mosque, 

not to insult any woman and not to destroy any crops. The Muslim priests 

were so pleased that they blessed the victor. 49 No wonder the Muslim 

Generals of the Maharaja were responsible for carrying his flag across the 

Punjab borders. In this connection observations made by Sir Henry 

Lawrence are noteworthy; “Members of the deposed ruling families may 

be seen in Delhi and Kabul in a state of penury, but in the Punjab there is 

not to be seen a single ruling family whose territories may have been 

conquered by Ranjit Singh, and which may have been left unprovided by 

him. Not only the Sikh ruling houses, but those of other faiths, too, were 

provided for by him with equal munificence. 50 " A simi1ar observation is 

made by Lepel Griffin: “With all his rapacity Ranjit Singh was not cruel or 

blood-thirsty. After the victory or the capture of a fortress he treated the 

vanquished with leniency and

259 

kindness, however stout their resistance might have been, and there were 

at his court many chiefs despoiled of their estates but to whom he had 

given suitable employ.” 51 

Here it will not be out of place to compare Ranjit Singh with the 

Marathas who had allowed the Mughal emperor Shah Alam II to languish 

in his palace with a niggardly allowance. By propping up the Imperial 

edifice the Marathas had derived considerable advantage but it was rather 

sad that they did not mitigate the King’s pecuniary distress. This sordid 

policy had not only disgusted the royal house of Timur but had also roused 

the indignation of many Muhammadans in the country who did not approve 

of the treatment meted out to the Imperial family. It was, therefore, not 

surprising that in September, 1803, the hapless Mughal emperor welcomed 

the English as deliverers. 52 Similarly, the treatment meted out by Governor- 

General Dalhousie to the royal house of Sikhs reflected no credit on the 

British. The minor Maharaja Dalip Singh was converted to Christianity, 

given a meagre pension of 13,000 per annum and after separating him 

from his mother, was sent to England. Maharani Jindan, called the ‘mother 

of Khalsa’ was also treated very shabbily and was forced to leave the 

country. In pursuance of his imperial policies, Dalhousie abolished all 

military grants to the Sikh Sardars. Henry Lawrence, as head of the Board 

of Control, responsible for the administration of Punjab, recommended 

slight leniency towards the Sikh nobility. But Dalhousie insisted that 

Jagirdars deserved “little but maintenance’ . 53 Henry Lawrence tendered 

his resignation over this issue. 

Among the notable traits of Ranjit Singh’s character were his 

kindness and the total absence of malice, cruelty or vindictiveness. These 

being so uncommon in the context of his times, were evidently due to the 

Sikh tradition and ethos in which he had been nurtured, conditioned and 

motivated. His regime was not stained by such dark blots as was the 

Mughal rule. For, there are numerous instances like the cruel death of 

Dara Shikoh at the hands of his own brother, or the diabolical 

murders of twenty one captains of Ali Wardi Khan, or the degradation 

and blinding of Emperor Shah Alam II. . 

The Marathas knew how to conquer but not how to govern. 

Though they were the strong exponents of Hindu Swarajya, yet ‘outside 

the Swarajya they plundered Hindus as ruthlessly as Muslims 

so that their claim to be serving the cause of Hinduism

260 

was falsified. 54 Here it will be worthwhile to give another historical analogy 

of the British Governors Clive and Warren Hastings, both of whom had 

to face disgrace and degradation on account of their involvement in 

charges of corruption, bribery and extortion. 55 Both of them were 

impeached. Clive who is regarded as the founder of the British empire in 

India committed suicide in disgrace and frustration. 

Similarly, Alfanso Albuquerque, the founder of the Portuguese 

Empire in India tried to establish Christianity in his territory with sword 

and fire. 56 In its religious zeal the Portuguese power became ruthless and 

issued charters from time to time making invidious distinctions between 

Christians and non Christians and subjecting the latter to untold disabilities. 

An enactment was passed debarring all non-Christians from holding any 

public office. In pursuance of another enactment, the property of non- 

Christian orphans was confiscated, if they refused to be converted to 

Christianity. Under pain of being proceeded against by the law of the 

land, the people of Goa were prohibited from using their native language 

Konkani and were forced to learn the Portuguese language within a period 

of three years. The aim of all these enactments was to compel the natives 

either to accept Christian religion or to leave the state. 57 

To describe Ranjit singh’s rule as military despotism is to do a great 

injustice to him. A comparative study of the contemporary Governments 

in the west reveals that Ranjit Singh’s rule was more humane and popular 

than all of them. His contemporary rulers in the West were known for 

their highly centralised and despotic rule, whether it was that of autocratic 

Napoleon Bonaparte (1804-15), or of the inglorious LouisXVIII (1814- 

24), or of the vindictive Bourbon Charles X (1824-30) or of the selfcentred 

Louis Phillippe (1830-48)in France, or of Geroge III, IV and William 

IV in England, or, for that matter, of the tyrant Czar Nicholas I (1826-55) 

in Russia. Let us amplify the point in respect of Napoleon. The French 

Revolution was the flower of the centuries following Reformation and 

Renaissance. And yet, Napoleon buried that flower before it could fructify 

into a tangible fruit. It is not in doubt that he virtually destroyed the ideas 

and ethos of the Revolution that produced him. But the point for study is 

whether the ideas that led to the Revolution and which were easily 

smothered and distorted by Napoleon, an upstart, were really so great. 

Factually, Reformation in one sense belittled the Christian ethos and its 

supremacy over

261 

the political life came to an end. The states came to be governed by the 

whims of the rulers, political elites or classes. Ultimately it revived, as 

Toynbee laments, the parochial Greek idea of the national state being the 

goddess, thereby involving the gradual erosion of Christian ethos even in 

the social life. Rational concept and dry ideas have no meaning unless 

they influence human and social behaviour. To us it appears a contradiction 

to say that the French Revolution was a great event of history, even though 

it was destroyed in the country of its birth within half a dozen years. As 

against it, Sikhism was a movement that changed the life and motivations 

of a people, with the result that even an unlettered person, when he came 

to power, created a socio-political administration that was remarkably 

humane and just, even though, he belonged to a community that was in a 

microscopic minority. Ranjit Singh’s conquests were not to bring 

glorification to his person, community or people but to give peace to 

Punjab by stopping once for all a thousand year wave of invaders that had 

subjected Punjabis to perpetual loot, massacres, butchery, and disgrace. 

As stated above, Ranjit Singh won the hearts of his people, including 

Muslims and Hindus by giving them peace, security and justice and not by 

any sense of glorification or threat of terror. What we mean to stress is 

that religious thought and ethos that permeate and affect the moral life, 

behavior and sentiments of a poeple are far more enduring and meaningful 

than rational concepts that generally remain ethereal and short-lived, and 

fail to influence human motivations So to us the inference is obvious 

enough that in comparison it is not that Napoleon was a villain and Ranjit 

Singh a saint but that the ideology that produced Ranjit Singh was far 

superior to the ideas and thinking that preceded Napoleon and the French 

Revolution. 

Ranjit Singh’s rule was, on the whole, humanitarian and humane. In 

fact his clear attempt at self-effacement and avoidance of any personal 

elevation, while giving credit to God, Guru and the Khalsa, would suggest 

a kind of rule, beneficial, free from wanton atrocities and solicitous of 

the public wea1. 58 In its contemporary world it is the most inspiring example 

of a just state. That rule is, thus, full of lessons even for present day 

politics. Captain Murray pays the most befitting tribute to the Maharaja in the 

these words, “Ranjit Singh has been likened to Mehmet Ali and to Napoleon..... 

There are some points in which he resembles both; but estimating his 

character with reference to his circumstances and positions, he

262 

is perhaps a more remarkable man than either There was no ferocity in his 

disposition and he never punished a criminal with death even under 

circumstances of aggravated offence. Humanity indeed, or rather 

tenderness for life, was a trait in the character of Ranjit Singh. There is no 

instance of his having wantonly imbued his hands in blood.” 59 

The habitual meekness of spirit which the Maharaja displayed even 

at the peak of his glory, the sympathy which he showed to the fallen foes 

and the compassion he had for animals demonstrated the breadth of his 

vision and the catholicity of his temper. It was quite in keeping with Sikh 

tradition and the Scriptural injuction, “To exercise forbearance in the midst 

of power, to be humble in the midst of honour.” 60 C.L. Chopra believes 

that considering the social and political conditions of the country over 

which he ruled, the government of Maharaja Ranjit Singh was “surprisingly 

mild and merciful.’ 61 On one occasion he is said to have punished one of 

his generals for killing a Koel (nightingale) when she was warbling. No 

body was allowed to hurt a swan, a parrot or a sparrow. Cow slaughter was 

banned throughout the Empire in deference to the wishes of his Hindu 

subjects. 

Sikh Administration: A distinguishing feature of the Khalsa Raj was 

an orderly system of administration based upon territorial divisions like 

that of Subas,parganas,tapas and mauzas (Village). The administrative 

hierarchy of the Nazim, the Kardar, the Chaudhary and the Muqaddam, 

linked the far flung villages of the Sikh empire to the capital city of Lahore. 62 

Thus, Ranjit Singh exercised his authority on the basis of the willing 

cooperation of indigenous socio-political institutions. He made no 

innovations in the Civil administration of his dominions but tried to 

improve the old arrangements. The stability of Ranjit Singh’s regime also 

rested upon moderation in what the state expropriated from the peasantry 

as its share of the agricultural produce. According to one source, the 

government’s share varied between two - fifth to one-third of the gross 

produce. 63 An agricultural tax of this order was in keeping with what the 

state could legitimately demand from the peasentry. The revenue could 

be paid in cash or kind and in easy instalments. A notable achievement of 

the Maharaja was that the ownership of the land was vested in the 

cultivator, 64 from whom the revenue was collected directly without the 

intervention of the middleman, an institution he summarily dispensed 

with. During the course of war or the movement of troops, any damage

263 

to the standing crops was severely dealt with. The soldiers had to dismount 

from their horses while passing through the villages and the pathways 

leading to the corn fields. Punjab peasantry, suppressed for centuries, was 

put on the road to prosperity and given a new dispensation. 

The administration of justice under Ranjit Singh was, by the standards 

of times, simple, well-organised and suited to the needs of the people. In 

villages, the disputes were settled by the arbitration of Panchayats, who 

had to decide cases according to the custom prevailing in each locality. In 

the towns the function was entrusted to the Kardars, Nazims or sometimes 

to officials called Adalties (judges). An Adalt-i-Ala or High Court was set 

up at the capital. Above them all was the Maharaja himself to hear appeals 

and petitions made against the decisions of the above mentioned authorities. 

He was in the habit of receiving petitions and listening to complaints 

even during the course of passing through the streets. Decisions were 

speedy and justice was quick. With the Maharaja justice was a passion. 

He believed that the only divine element in kingship was justice. He sent 

instructions to the Chief Kotwal of Lahore that he should not spare the 

Maharaja himself or any member of his family, should they be found 

guilty of any offence. It was a unique instance where the king had accepted 

equality with his subjects. A protector of the poor and the weak, the 

Maharaja established a state where the strong were just and the weak 

secure. 

Though cruelty, killings, injustice and oppression practiced and the wars 

fought in the current century have raised a serious question mark in the 

minds of many thinking persons about the form of government best suited 

for a people, many persons conditioned by the western education are still 

sold to the idea of a democratic structure of government being the best 

to secure justice among the people. On the other hand, the concept of 

kingship at once raises the idea of despotic and unjust rule. It is, perhaps, 

in this context that Fakir Syed Waheduddin has quoted two orders of 

Ranjit Singh to ensure justice among the poeple and the application of 

secular laws of each community to its members through courts presided 

over by persons of the community concerned. These orders emphasize 

two things. First, that equality before the law and equity in 

administration were the fundamental criteria of 

Ranjit Singh’s administration. Second, that because of the actual 

humane manner in which justice was administered, it was never felt

264 

necessary by him to give the extreme punishment of death so as to secure 

respect for the law. And, in this respect, he ensured the sanctity of this 

principle by not punishing with death even those who had attempted to 

kill him. We give below the two orders issued by Ranjit Singh. 

I. “Sincere Well-wisher, Fakir Nuruddin Ji, May you be happy. 

It is hereby decreed by His Highness with the utmost emphasis that 

no person in the city should practice high-handedness and oppression on 

the people. Indeed, if even His Highness himself should issue an 

inappropriate order against any resident of Lahore, it should be clearly 

brought to the notice of His Highness so that it may be amended. Protector 

of Bravery. Malwa Singh should always be advised to dispense justice in 

accordance with legitimate right and without the slightest oppression and, 

furthermore, he should be advised to pass orders in consultation with the 

Panches and Judges of the city and in accordance with the Shastras and 

the Quran, as pertinent to the faith of the parties; for such is our pleasure. 

And should any person fail to act in accordance with your advice or 

instructions, you should send him a formal letter so that it may serve as a 

proof on the strength of which His Highness may punish him for 

disobedience. 

Despatched from the Court of For repairs to the old ditch an 

His Highness expenditure of two thousand 

rupees is hereby sanctioned. 

31 Bhadon, 1882 Sambat 

For the present the salary of Fakir Sahib, Rs.1500/ -. After 

expenditure on the said ditch, the salary of Sher Dyal, Rs.500/-” 65 

II. “Ujjal Didar Nirmal Budh Sardar Amir Singh Ji and our sincere 

well-wisher, Fakir Nuruddin Ji, May you live long by the grace of Sri Akal 

Purakhand enjoy the protection of Sri Akal Budh. 

By the grace of Sri Sat Guruji, the exalted command is issued to you 

that, deeming yourselves to be responsible for the security of Lahore, you 

should take care of the duties pertaining thereto. Sri Sat Guruji forbid, if 

His Highness, his beloved son Kharak Singh Ji, Kanwar Sher Singh Ji, the 

Raja Kalan Bahadur, Raja Such et Singh Ji, or Jamadar Ji should commit 

any inappropriate act, you should bring it to the notice of His Highness. 

Secondly, you should send your trusted representative to the Sardars with 

instructions to refrain from committing inappropriate acts. If the Sardars 

act according to your instructions, well and good; otherwise you

265 

should send word to them that you will bring the matter to the notice of 

His Highness. Moreover, you should not permit forcible possession to be 

taken of any person’s land or any person’s house to be demolished. Nor 

should you allow any high-handedness to be practised upon woodcutters, 

fodder-vendors, oil-vendors, horse-shoers, factory owners, etc. In such 

cases also you should prevent the :oppressor from oppression. You should 

administer matters in the same way as Sardar Desa Singh Ji, should not 

permit anybody to be treated harshly and should forward to the Highness 

any petitions intended for him. Furthermore, you should daily send for 

Chand Mall, Kotwal of the Royal Court. and Babu Panda, and obtain 

from them news of all happenings so that every person’s rights are secured 

and no person is oppressed. The frames of the city gates should be caused 

to be repaired from the revenue of the Court. Hazara Sawars should be 

appointed to watch the roads and, considering the security of the whole 

of Lahore city as your responsibility, you should act in accordance with 

this decree. Dated Lahore, 19 Pos, 1888 Sambat”. 66 I 

Waheeduddin concludes that these orders are “unique in one respect: 

they throw overboard the time-honoured legal fiction upon which the fact 

of kingship is based- that the king can do no wrong. It was characteristic 

of Ranjit Singh to acknowledge that, both as a man and as a king, he was 

fallible and to provide against any possible adverse effects of his fallibility 

upon the rights and well-being of his people.” 67 

Students of history are well aware of the presence of racial, religious 

and ethnic discrimination and even riots in modem states, as also of the 

need or use of drastic force to maintain law and order. In this context, 

three things are important and speak for themselves. First, Ranjit Singh 

never tried to convert Muslims, or Hindus to Sikhism, even though his 

community remained a permanent minority in the State. Second, there, 

were hardly any communal riots in his times. This background and the 

actual administration of justice and equity was so impressive and evident 

to the people that respect for law was spontaneous and he never had to 

use strong or brutal measures to maintain or enforce the law. 

Third, the cases of bribery and corruption in his kingdom were rare. 

The Maharaja’s frequent and unexpected tours kept the local officials in 

check. While crime had been rampant under his immediate 

predecessors, it was reduced practically to the point of 

abolition during his reign. The cases of theft and highway robberies

266 

were uncommon. George Keene, an observer of the Punjab scene during 

the Maharaja’s regime stated: “In hundreds and in thousands the orderly 

crowds stream on. Not a bough is broken from a way side tree, not a rude 

remark addressed to the travel1er as he treads his horse’s way. 68 As a result 

many people from the Cis-Satluj states migrated to the Maharaja’s territories, 

where there was more security for life and property, where their rights and 

privileges were better protected. The Maharaja provided to his subjects 

al1 the fundamental rights and basic freedoms supposed to be enshrined 

in any modern constitution of today. 

Ranjit Singh was an enlightened ruler. He trained his armies on 

modern lines through his European generals like Allard, Ventura and 

Avitabile. A trained and disciplined army was the principal instrument 

that had led to western supremacy over the east in the seventeenth and 

eighteenth centuries. Among Indian princes, Ranjit Singh was the first to 

train his army to a level at par with western armies. It was this training and 

discipline coupled with the Sikh ethos that his armies even in his absence 

and though betrayed by its generals proved a match for the British. So 

much that though vanquished, it commanded the unstinted praise of its 

opponents like General Gough. He had a remarkable capcity for inspiring 

loyalty among the soldiers, who were imbued with national sentiments. 

They showed pride in their profession and valour, faith and righteousness 

in their cause and conduct. This made them fight like brave soldiers against 

the British even after the Maharaja’s death. Empire builders have often 

used the army as an instrument of state policy. The invariable result in all 

such cases is distintegration in the ranks of the army after the ruler’s 

death. But Ranjit Singh’s army undertook the responsibility of defending 

Punjab from the British encroachment in accordance with the Khalsa 

tradition. They could not save the Sikh state but even in their defeat won 

applause and admiration of their friends and foes. The poet Shah 

Muhammad in his Jangnamah extols the virtues of the Khalsa soldiers in 

the Anglo-Sikh Wars. 

Though himself unlettered, the Maharaja knew the importance of 

education. The Gurus had bade their followers to be progressive in their 

outlook, always to be Sikhs or learners, to take increasing 

advantage of opportunities to improve their condition and knowledge as 

men free from the shackles of earlier prejudices, conventions 

and dogmas and the stranglehold of the priestly classes 

who claimed monopoly of knowledge. The Maharaja was

267 

very liberal and impartial in the matter of making endowments for 

education. There were about four thousand schools belonging to different 

communities scattered over the lenght and breadth of his kingdom, with 

about one lac and twenty thousand students. These schools were mostly 

attached to Gurdawaras, Mosques and Temples. The Maharaja was most 

generous in helping the custodians of these places of learning. He also 

stood for modern knowledge and is said to have encouraged the learning 

of English and French. He also procured the services of a Christian 

missonary to set up English medium schools at Lahore, though without 

al1owing him to propagate Christianity or introduce Bible in the curriculum 

of the schools. Maharaja Ranjit Singh’s department of Charity cost the 

State exchequer one-tenth of the total revenues amounting nearly to twenty 

lakh rupess a year. This is an extremely important fact of Ranjit Singh’s 

administration that high lights its Sikh character. The Fifth Master had 

prescribed for the Sikh a contribution of Daswandh or one tenth of his 

earnings towards religious cause of the society. It is indeed outstanding of 

Ranjit’ Singh’s administration that he ear-marked one tenth of the total 

revenue towards expenditure on charities and other public causes. 

Ranjit Singh’s place in History: The Maharaja gave to his citizens a 

consistent and uniform system of administration and a greater amount of 

peace and prosperity than they had enjoyed for over a century. The Mughal 

and the Maratha rulers in the country had been marked by bigotry, 

corruption, degradation, persecution, treachery, confusion, disorder, 

extravagance and pomp. Ranjit Singh’s claim to greatness lies in the fact 

that he successful1y faced the historical chal1enge of abuse of power and 

religious bigotry by restoring communal harmony in his state. He endowed 

politics with a moral purpose. His state was governed and sustained by 

values and attitudes that characterised the Sikh tradition. The Gurus had 

envisioned an egalitarian social order based on justice and freedom. With 

the Sikh ethos governing his psyche, Ranjit Singh translated this vision 

into practice. 

For the first time in the Indian history a landmark was created. 

Mazhbhis, the centuries old untouchables of the Hindu society, 

far from being discriminated against, became a regular component 

of Ranjit Singh’s army. The Hindu Hill Rajputs, who 

had refused to co-operate with the Tenth Master on account of 

his giving equality to the lower castes ceased to have any compunction in 

working and fighting side by side with them. And his greatest

268 

achievement was the unstinted and uncommon loyalty he commanded of 

all sections of his men, whether Muslim, Hindu, Sikh, Rajput or European. 

The miracle was that this sense of commradeship was achieved just in a 

period of four decades, most of which time was spent in fighting and 

consolidation. Unlike the Muslim invaders or contemporary rulers of his 

times, another uncommon feature of his rule was that while he spent long 

periods in fighting far away from his capital, there never was a local uprising 

to challenge his authority. This indicates an incontrovertible belief and 

assessment of the people he ruled that he was not for any personal 

aggrandisement nor were he and his annies out for gathering any booty or 

loot. 

Conclusion: From our narration of facts about the rule of Ranjit 

Singh it is evident that in all aspects of its functioning and administration, 

Ranjit Singh”s rule was in sharp contrast with the rule not only of his 

contemporaries, but also of many modern secular administrations. Moses 

and Mohammed were both spiritual and political leaders. Moses was 

followed by kings, David and Solomon, well-known for their fairness and 

wisdom. Similarly, the Muslim rule in Europe, in contrast with the ghetto, 

repeated butchery, massacres and pogroms prepetrated by Christian 

monarchs, was remarkably tolerant, mild and humane towards its non- 

Muslim subjects. It is the lesson of history that a healthy combination of 

religion and politics is bound to lead to a harmonious socio-political order. 

It is well known that Ashoka’s rule, coloured by Buddhist ethics, was a 

shining light among the empires of the earlier millenia. Even among modern 

secular rulers atleast two of the despots are notorious for their inhumanity. 

We refer to Hitler’s elimination of six million Jews and Stalin’s liquidation 

of his twelve million countrymen in order to make their people safe and 

secure for peace, prosperity and equality. Hence the inevitable conclusion 

that Ranjit Singh’s rule, being a product of the Sikh tradition and ethos, 

was outstandingly humane, liberal and tolerant towards his people, 

including his erstwhile opponents and enemies. His rule was, undoubtedly, 

benign and fair, and why it was so is explained by the background of the 

whole-life religious thesis and ethos which conditioned and influenced it, 

and of which Ranjit Singh was a shining product. 

Ranjit Singh’s rule epitomises and demonstrates a 

very important principle of religion and human history, namely, 

the comparative role and impact of dichotomous or pacifist religions

269 

and of whole-life or Miri-Piri religions on the life of man. So far as the 

Indian contemporary life, governed by dichotomous Hinduism, was 

concerned, there was little doubt that the discriminatory system of caste, 

pollution and untouchability and the dominance of the upper castes 

remained a fact of life in ‘the Indian society, including that in the times of 

Shivaji. At no time could the untouchables think of working shoulder to 

shoulder with the upper castes. The position in the matter of social 

discrimination was no different in the rule of Christian monarchs upto 

the nineteenth century, where the ghetto for the Jews remained a cursed 

institution and the treatment of Muslim subjects was no less discriminatory. 

Amold Toynbee finds himself caught in a web of self-contradiction, and 

perhaps bias as well, when, on the one hand, he condemns the diversion 

of religion to empirical and mundane tasks and seeks to justify and extol 

the pacifism and other-worldliness of the Christian mission, and, for that 

matter, condemns the Miri-Piri or the whole -life character of Islam; and, 

on the other hand, he is constrained to concede that “by contrast with the 

treatment of subject Jews and Muslims in the Christiandom, the treatment 

of subject ‘People of the Book’ in Dar-UI-Islam has been honourably 

distinguished by its comparative tolerance.” 69 This shows that it is a wholelife 

or a Miri-Piri system that alone is capable of making a historical impact 

on the life of society and man. Consequently, dischotomous or pacifist 

religions to the extent they keep confined to what Toynbee calls their 

spiritual mission (as divorced from a whole life mission) remain historically 

and socially barren in their influence and impact. The phenomenon of 

Ranjit Singh is not just a rule of a monarch. It domonstrates very clearly 

the historical role and impact of a whole-life or Miri-Piri religion on the 

society of its times. 

References 

1 Cunnigham, J.D.: History of the Sikhs (Reprint, New Delhi 1966), p. 120. 

2 Kohli, Sita Ram; ‘The Organisation of Ranjit Singh’s Army; Maharaja Ranjit Singh (ed.) 

Teja Singh and Ganda Singh (Reprint, Patiala 1970), pp.60-61. 

3 Prinsep, H.T.; Origin of The Sikh Power in The Punjab and Political Life of Maharaja Ranjit Singh 

(Reprint, Paitala 1970), pp. 142-43. 

4 Sinha, N.K.; Ranjit Singh (Reprint, Calcutta 1960), pp. 189-92.

5 Bentley, Eric; Century of Hero- Worship (Boston 1957), pp. 3-8. 

6 Macaulay, J.B.; Lord Macaulay’s Legislative Minutes (London 1946), pp.2-3. 

7 Toynbee, J. Arnold; A Study of History (Oxford 1951), p.79. 

8 Griffin, Lepel; Ranjit Singh (Reprint, Delhi 1967), p. 39. 

9 “You wear necklaces, put sacrificial marks on your foreheads, carry two dhotis, and put 

towels on your heads; 

If you know God’s designs, you would know that yours is verily a vain religion:’ 

Macauliffee, MA; The Sikh Religion, Vol.1 (Delhi 1963), p. 237; 

270 

“The Qazi telleth lies and eateth filth. The Brahmin taken life and then batheth. The 

ignorant jogi knoweth not the way of union with God The whole three ruin the world.” 

Macauliffe, MA; Ibid., p.338. 

10 Dhillon, G.S.; Researches in Sikh Religion and History (Chandigarh 1989); p. 2. 

11 “Nanak, the Formless One is without fear; All the Rams dust; 

How many stories there are of Krishnan! 

How many Veds and religious compositions! 

Afflicted are Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva: 

Yea, afflicted is the whole world.” 

Guru Granth, p. 1153, Trans. by Gopal Singh, Vol. IV, p. 1102. 

12 "O Whom shall we call good or evil, 

When all creatures belong to Thee. “ 

Guru Granth, p. 383 

13 “God is self-existent; so is His Name; 

Beside Himself He made Nature, wherein He has His seat and looks on with fondness.” 

Asa-di-Var, Trans. Teja Singh; Essays in Sikhism (Lahore 1944), p. 17. 

14 “Householders and hermits are equal, whoever calls on the name of the Lord.” 

Asa Ragni, Trans., Cunningham; op.cit., p.334. 

15 “O Hindus, how shall the stone which itself sinketh carry you across?” 

Macauliffe, Vol.1, p.326. 

16 Guru Granth, p.1046. 

17 Ibid., p.463. 

18 Dhillon, G.S; op.cit., p. 9. 

19 Irvine, William; Later Mughals (Reprint, New Delhi 1971), pp. 317-18. 

20 Archer, John Clark; Sikhs (Princeton 1946), p. 232. 

21 Forster, George; A Journey From Bengal to England, Vol. I (Reprint, Patiala 1970), p.340. 

22 igd/ ikg r[o d/ g{o/, ofjzd/ ;fsr[o gk; ji{o/ . 

e/ ;kXkoh ;[zdo ;{o, ehsh vfjb gJh wBi{o/ . 

py;h foXf;X Gog{o/, y/sh eoB jzYktB G{o/ . 

np f;odko j/ . 

Bir Singh ; Bara Maha Guru Gobind Singh Ji Ka (ed.) Piara Singh Padam (Patiala

1959), p.143 

23 Waheeduddin, Fakir Syed; The Real Ranjit Singh (Karachi 1965), p. 57. 

24 Ibid., Introduction, pp. 7-8 

25 Hugel, Baron Charles; Travels in Kashmir and Punjab (Reprint, Patiala 1970), p. 382. 

26 Murray (Captain); History of The Punjab, Vol.II (Reprint, Patiala 1970), p. 175. 

27 Henry, T. Prinsep; Origin of The Sikh Power in the Punjab (Reprint, Patiala 1970), p.148. 

28 Dhillon, G.S.; op. cit., pp. 2-3. 

29 Waheeduddin; op.cit., p. 57. 

30 Sarkar, S.C. and Datta, K.K., Modern Indian History (Allahabad 1957), P. 180. 

31 Segal, Ronald; The Crisis of India (Bombay 1968), p.79. 

32. Macrindle, J.W.; Ancient India As Described by Magathenes and Arian (Calcutta 1926), 

p. 214; 

33 Ibid. 

Al-Bairuni, AI-Hind (Punjabi Trans. Yog Dhyan Ahuja) (Patiala 1970), p. 362; Elliot and 

Dowson; History of India as Told by Its Own Historians, Vol. I (Allahabad 1969), p. 184. 

34 Elliot, Charles; Hinduism and Buddhism, Vol. 11 (Reprint, London 1%2), p. 211; 

35 Ibid. 

Joshi, L.M., Studies in the Buddhistic Culture of India (Delhi 1967), pp. 395-403. 

36 Parkash, Buddha, Aspects of Indian History and Culture (Agra 1965), p. 215. 

271 

37 Qanungo, S.N., ‘Decline And Fall of The Maratha Power’ in Majurndar, R.C. 

(ed.) The History And Culture of The Indian People: The Maratha Supremacy (Bombay 1971), 

pp. 515-16. 

38. Hans, Surjit, 'The Gurbials in The Early Ninetenth Century' in the Journal of Regional 

History, Vol.lI, 1981, Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar, p,56. 

39 “The position was further complicated by the minority status of the rulers. Thus the bonds 

with the Hindu constituency had to be strengthened. The Muslim population had to be 

pacified not only administratively but also doctrinally.” Ibid. 

40 Obsorne, W.G., The Court and Camp of Runjeet Singh (London 1840), pp. 94-95. 

41 Hugel, Baron Charles, op. cit., pp. 292-93. 

42 Cunningham, J.D., op.cit., pp. 48. 

43 Ibid., p. 70. 

44 Bhangu, Rattan Singh, Prachin Panth Parkash (ed.) Bhai Vir Singh (Amritsar 1962), 

pp. 291-96. 

45 Cunningham, J.D., op.cit., p. 92. 

46 “He (Ranjit Singh) raised the alien hill Dogras, Dhyan Singh, Khushal Singh Gulab Singh, 

almost from the gutter to positions of supreme authority in the civil appratus of his 

government, and Tej Singh, an insignificant Brahmin of the Gangetic-Doab and Lal Singh 

another Brahmin from Gandhara valley, were granted such influence which eventually 

raised to the supreme command

272 

of the Sikh Army, and thus he dug his own grave, the grave of his descendents, and paved 

the way to the eventual enlavement of the Sikh people.” Kapur Singh, Parasaraprasana 

(ed.) 

Madanjit Kaur and Piar Singh (Amritsar 1989), p.239. 

47 Teja Singh, op.cit., p. 103. 

48 Sinha, N.K., op. cit., p. 149. 

49 KhulIar, K.K., Maharaja Ranjit Singh (New Delhi 1980), p. 185. 

50 Lawrence, H.M.L., Aduentures of An Officer in Punjab, Vol. I (Reprint, Paitala 1970), 

pp.30-31. 

51 Griffin, Lepel, Ranjit Singh (Reprint, Delhi 1970), pp. 98-99. 

52 Sen, S.N., 'Marathas and Norh Indian States in Majumdar, R.C. (ed.), The 

History And Culture of The Indian People: The Maratha Supremacy, Vol. III (Bombay 

1977), p. 419. 

53 Hunter, W.W., The Marquess of Dalhousie (Oxford 1895), p. 99; 

Yadav, Kirpal Chandra, ‘British Policy Towards Sikhs, 1849-57’ in Harbans Singh and 

Barrier; N. Gerald (ed.), Essays In Hanour of Dr. Ganda Singh (Patiala 1976), pp. 189-91; 

.Khushwant Singh, A History of The Sikhs, Vo!. 2; 1839-1964 (Delhi 1977), pp. 94-95. 

54 Segal, Ronald, op.cit. p. 80. 

55 Datta, K.K., ‘Distruction of The Mughal Empire’ in Majurndar, R.C (ed.), The History 

And Culture of The Indian People, Vol. VIII (Bombay 1977), pp. 117-18, 352 53. 

56 Parekh, Manilar C, Christian Proselytism In India (Bombay 1947), pp. 12, 20, 36-37; 

57 Ibid. 

Report of the Christian Missionary Activities Inquiry Committee, Madhya Pradesh, 1956, 

p. 66, Quoted by Patel, Baburao; Footprints of Christ (Bombay 1979), pp. 4-5. 

58 Guru Granth, p. 74. 

59 Murray (Captain), op.cit., p. 174. 

60 Guru Granth, p. 85. 

61 Chopra, G.L., The Punjab As a Souereign State (Hushiarpur 1960), p. 137. 

62 Banga, Indu, Agrarian Systems Of The Sikhs (New Delhi 1978), pp. 63-64. 

63 Sinha, N.K., op.cit., p. 142. 

64 Banga, Indu, op.cit., p. 191. 

65 Waheeduddin; op.cit., pp. 31-33. 

66 Ibid. 

67 Ibid 

68 George Keene, quoted by Khullar, K.K., op.cit., p. 198. 

69 Toynbee, Arnold; An Historian’s Approach To Religian (London 1956), P.90.

17 

FROM RITUAL TO COUNTER RITUAL: A Critical analysis. 

GURBAKHSH SINGH 

273 

A. Oberoi’s Assumptions 

The very first paragraph of Oberoi’s above mentioned paper 

makes it clear to a reader that it is full of many incorrect and anti-Sikh 

statements. The author tells that the Sikhs were (are) hardly different 

from the Hindus, at least till 1897 when Kahn Singh denied it. This is 

the fallacious base on which the author has attempted to build a wrong 

thesis. 

He states, “In 1897 when Kahn Singh Nabha, the erudite Sikh 

scholar, proclaimed through a vernacular tract that Ham Hindu Nahin 

(We are not Hindus), he brought almost four centuries of Sikh traditions 

to an end. Until then the Sikhs had shown little collective interest in 

distinguishing themselves from the Hindus. Sikh notions of time, space, 

corporeality, holiness, kinship, social distinctions, purity pollution, and 

commensality were hardly different from those of the Hindus. Also 

the two shared the same territory, language, rites de passage, dietary 

taboos, festivals, ritual personal and key theological doctrines”. 

B. Observafions of some scholars 

Before showing the statement of Oberoi to be totally 

propagandist, because of its being based on incorrect assumptions, let 

us first quote the observations of some modern scholars and mystics 

about Sikhism: 

Drothy Field: Pure Sikhism is far above dependence on Hindu rituals 

and is capable of a distinct position as a world religion so long as 

Sikhs maintain their distinctiveness………. A reading of the Granth 

suggests that Sikhism should be regarded as a new and separate world 

religion rather than a reformed sect of Hinduism. 

Arnold Toynbee: In this coming religious debate, the Sikh religion 

and its scriptures, the Adi Granth, will have something special of value 

to say to the rest of the world.

274 

Pearl S. Buck: They (Sikh scripture) speak to person of nay religion 

or of none. They speak for the human heart and the searching mind. 

H.L. Bradshaw: Sikhs must cease to think of their faith as just 

another good religion and must begin to think in terms of Sikhism 

being the religion for this new age…….it completely supplants and 

fulfils all the former dispensations of older religions Guru Granth 

Sahib of all the world religious scriptures, alone states that there are 

innumerable worlds and universes other than our own. 

W.O.Cole: In his 1985 key note lecture in India on the Mission 

and message of Guru Nanak Dev: Sikhism is the only religion which 

welcomes each and everyone to its langar without any discrimination 

of caste, creed, colour, or sex. 

Remember the tenets of Guru Nanak, his concepts of oneness of 

God and Universal Brotherhood of man. If any community holds the 

key to national integration of India, it is the Sikhs all the way. 

Swami Nitya Nand: In his book Guru Gian: I constantly meditate 

on Waheguru revealed by Nanak. I practised Yoga Asnas under the 

guidance of Yogis and did that for many years. The bliss and peace, 

which I enjoy now, was never obtained earlier. 

C. Analysis of the Assumptions 

Oberoi considered many Sikh notions and ideas to be hardly 

different from those of Hindus. Actually, the Hindu & the Sikh notions 

on various aspects of life are quite different. Gurbani references can 

be quoted to prove that not only they are different, but in some cases 

they are also opposed to each other, leaving no ground for Oberoi’s 

thesis. 

1. Time and Space: 

(a) Hindus believe in the cycle of four yugas. Satyug is the period 

of truthfulness and highest morality. The light of truth decreased 

through the Treta and Dwapar Yugas. The Kalyug is the period of 

dominance of evil over good. Gurmat denies both these concepts, the 

division of time in yugas and the decrease of morality in time. It says 

that Time is continuous, its beginning or end is not known to any 

religious leader or prophet. The system of grouping time in yugas is 

arbitrary in the same way as the invention of the 7-day week and the 

naming of the days. There is no sanctity about this dicision of time. 

To quote Guru Nanak: 

‘What the hour and occasion, 

What the date and day, 

What the season and month

275 

When the creation began? 

Had Brahmins found the answer, 

In their scriptures would they have recorded it; 

Nor have the Kazis known from Koranic record. 

The yogi knows not the date and day, season or month; 

The creator who made the universe, 

alone knows the answer 1 .” 

(b) Hindus believe some days and activities to be holy and 

auspicious for worship; others are considered unholy and inauspicious i.e. 

for purchasing new things, visiting relatives, engagements or marriage 

ceremonies, etc. For them the full moon, the new moon, the beginning of 

a solar month, etc., are, important and significant in relation to religious or 

temporal activities. 

Sikhism rejects such notions as superstition. Says the Guru: 

“Observing dates and days from duality arises. 

Without the holy Preceptor’s guidance all is pitch dark. 

Worship of dates and days is the way of deluded ignorant 

persons . 2 " 

“All months, days and moments to such are auspicious, 

As the Lord’s grace have obtained. 3 

(c) According to Hindu belief the universe consists of three 

divisions: Dharti (Earth), Patal (Nether region) and Akash (Upper region). 

Gurmat tells us that there are innumerable levels or regions and suns. To 

quote Guru Nanak: 

“Of the nether worlds and heavens has He created millions. 

Men have given up the count in despair. 

His Infinity no one may measure or state, 

Men’s lives are spent in the effort, 

Saith Nanak. Know that He is supreme, all-knowing 4 .” 

2. Holiness: 

(a) Hindus believe in the holiness of certain places, rivers 

animals and species of trees. Gurmat says that the only thing holy or 

sacred is Naam, the Lord’s Name or the people who love it. 

Where the holy place their feet, 

that is equivalent to the sixty-eight pilgrim-spots. 

Where the Name is uttered, is Paradise 5 .” 

(b) Hindus believe in the holiness of idols and their worship. 

According to Gurbani it is God’s Name, the Word (Gian) which is holy, 

and not any idol. Worship of idols is strictly prohibited in Sikhism: 

“Those that call a stone their God,

276 

Wasted is their devotion. 

Those that fall at the feet of stone-idols, 

Wasted is their endeavour 6 .” 

3. Purity and Pollution: 

(a) Hindus believe in the sacredness and importance of ritualism. 

Pollution can be removed by washing with the Ganga-jal, water from the 

river Ganges. For example, Mr. Jagjivan Ram, a low-caste but a distinguised 

person and Number Two in the Ministry of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, 

unveiled the statue, of a high-caste Hindu. The upper-caste Hindus 

protested that the touch of a low-caste Jagjivan Ram had polluted the 

statue. To remove its pollution it was washed with Ganga-jal 

ceremoniously. The Gurus reject the whole concept of pollution and purity. 

“Should man observe purifying rituals day and night, 

His impurity of mind would still not be shed 7 .” 

In Gurmat, considering anybody a low-caste, is itself polluted 

thinking, since God resides in every heart: 

“Break no heart-know, each being is a priceless jewel. 

Each heart is a jewel; evil it is to break any; 

Shouldst thou seek to find the Beloved, break no one’s hearts. 8 " 

One wonders how any writer can ignore all this and state that 

Hindus and Sikhs have no different philosophy regarding purity and 

pollution. 

(b) Hindus consider Brahmins to be the holiest persons, and the 

Sudras to be polluted, Guru Nanak strongly protested against this and 

founded the institutions of Sangat and Pangat, to remove this wrong Hindu 

thought from the minds of people. Guru Nanak refers to this as follows: 

“In man’s mind foul thinking is the drummer woman, 

Hard-heartedness the she-butcher, 

slandering of others the scavenger-woman, 

By the low-caste wrath is he deluded; 

What good is the line of ritual purity in the kitchen, 

With these untouchables sitting by his side 9 ?” 

4. Territory and’Language: 

According to Oberoi, if the people share the same language and 

territory, they have the same faith. Because the Hindus and the Sikhs 

shared the same territory and language in the Punjab, he wants us to believe 

that “they were not different.” But why does the author exclude 

Muslims who were also there, shared the same language 

and the same territory? Even today Muslims are living in

277 

the Punjab (Malerkotla) and speaking the same language and sharing the 

same land. Are they, too, no different from Hindus? 

5. Dietary Taboos: 

This is another unique thesis presented by Oberoi. He says that if 

dietary taboos are the same, people have the same faith. In other words, if 

people have different food habits, they belong to different faiths. It is 

obviously difficult to accept this argument. It is common knowledge that 

Christians in Africa and India, have food habits and taboos, completely 

different from those of Christians in Europe. 

In fact, Guru Nanak totally rejected the food philosophy and 

taboos of Hindus: 

(a) To the vegetarian Hindus who consider themselves 

superior for not eating meat, Guru Nanak says: 

“Over the fetish of flesh dispute blind fools, 

Of enlightenment and contemplation ignorant. 

What is flesh, What vegetation? 

What to sin leads 10 

(b) Eating beef is a taboo with Hindus. Guru Nanak, however, 

prescribed a different taboo for his Sikhs saying: 

“To grab what is another’s, is evil. 

As pig’s flesh to the Muslim and Cow’s flesh to the Hindu. 11 " 

(c) Fasting is an important ritual for Hindu women, and is 

supposed to have great religious value. Among Sikhs, however, it has no 

significance: 

‘Those discarding food, practise hypocrisy. 

Such are neither like married women, nor widows. 

By the discarding of food, 

no one attains union with the Lord 12 .” 

6. Festivals: 

Public festivals are celebrated by a community in a locality. They 

are not always tied to a religion. In some cases a festival and a religious 

day fall on the same day, creating a misunderstanding to an outside observer, 

that people celebrating a particular festival, belong to the same faith. 

7. Rituals: 

The Bani in the Guru Granth Sahib repeatedly reminds us that 

rituals have no value. It is the moral deeds of a person which 

God accepts. Below are a few examples of how Gurmat rejects Hindu 

rituals (considered to be Sikh rituals by Oberoi). Cremation 

of a dead body: For Hindus it is a religious ceremony during which

278 

certain rituals have to be performed, just before death, before cremation 

and after cremation. Gurmat tells us that all these rituals are futile, which 

neither benefit nor harm the soul. 

“Should any apply sandalwood paste to a corpse, 

What gain out of it shall he get? 

Should the corpse in filth he thrown about, 

What would it then lose 13 

And then there is the Hindu belief that the fruit of actions or 

rituals performed by a Brahmin, after the death of a person, reaches his 

soul. Guru Nanak’s comment on this is very revealing: 

“Should a burglar rob some house, 

and out of his booty offer charity in his manes’ name; 

In the hereafter shall the offering be recognised? 

And the manes be branded as thieves; 

And judgement shall be that mediator’s hands 

be chopped off. 

Saith Nanak; In the hereafter is received reward for 

what man from his own earning offers 14 

Marriages among Sikhs can be performed on any convenient day, 

whereas among Hindus an auspicious date and time have to be worked 

out by a Brahmin. 

In conclusion we can say that rites-de-passage of Sikhs are different 

from those of Hindus. Even if outwardly they might appear to be similar, 

the Sikh philosophy is independent of Hindu thought. 

8. Key Theological Doctrines: 

Oberoi has not mentioned even a single key concept which is 

common. 

(a) Concept of God: Hindus believe in Trinity (Brahma, Vishnu 

and Mahesh) and other gods including Dharam Raj, Indra, Sun, Moon, 

etc. They also believe in many Avtars (God incarnates in human form), 

and address them as Bhagwan(God), e.g., Bhagwan Ram, Bhagwan 

Krishna, etc., Gurmat rejects this entire philosophy lock, stock and barrel. 

The Guru says: 

“Burnt be the mouth that asserts, the Lord takes birth. 

He is neither born nor dies; neither enters birth nor departs. 

All pervasive is Nanak’s Lord 15 .” 

Not the three gods mentioned above (as believed by Hindus), 

but God Himself is the Creator, the Operator, and the Destroyer of the 

universe: 

“His self He created, and manifested His Name.

279 

Then the second object, expanse of the universe He made; 

Settled on His cushion, in joy He beheld it. 

Thou solely the Bestower and Creator; 

in Thy pleasure dost grant boons and show grace. 

All to Thee is known; by Thy command dost confer life 

and take it back; 

Seated on Thy cushion, creation dost Thou behold in joy 16 .” 

The Guru says that neither Dharam Raj nor any other gods have 

any authority, power or competence. The poor fellows just consider 

themselves lucky, if they got a chance to stand outside His door to sing 

the virtues of the Lord. It means that they are of no significance. There 

are innumerable Brahmas, Krishnas, etc., created by God. 

(b) Hindus believe that after death, our souls will be judged in the 

court of Dharam Raj, and sent into heaven or hell. Gurbani denies the 

existence of any Dharam Raj, or any place designated as heaven or hell. 

Gurmat says that when one remembers God, he is in heaven. And if he 

forgets God, he is in hell. 17 

(c) Caste System: Hindu caste system is the steel net of Brahminism 

to keep all people, rich and poor, under the control of Brahmins. To deliver 

people from this bondage Gurmat broke this frame and destroyed all its 

dividing walls created by Brahmanism, into caste groups. Guru Granth 

says: 

Of me father are we all children; 

Thou my Preceptor 18 .” 

“If thou dost claim to be a Brahmin by thy birth 

from a Brahmin woman, 

Wpy was thy birth not from a different source 19 

“Thou ignorant fool, entertain not the pride of caste; 

By such pride manifold evils arise 20 .” 

(d) Brahminism is not willing to accept women as human beings 

equal to men nor are they fit to perform any religious rites. A son who may 

have to be adopted, and not a real daughter, can perform the prescribed 

rituals after death of her parents. This philosphy gives an inferior status to 

women. Guru Nanak decried this discrimination, and asked:”How can 

you denigrate a woman, who gives birth to kings?” 

D. The Second Aspect 

Oberoi has made a few wrong assumptions to build his thesis: 

“The pluralistic framework of Sikh faith in the nineteenth 

century allowed its adherents to belong to anyone of the following

280 

traditions: Udasi, Nirmala, Suthreshahi, Khalsa, Sangatshahi, Jitmali, 

Bakhatmali, Mihanshahi, Sahajdhari, Kuka, and Sarwaria. Many of these 

Sikhs shaved their heads freely smoked tobacco and hashish, and were 

not particular about maintaining the five external symbols of the 

faith……..There simply was no single source of authority within the Sikh 

tradition and thus several competing defintions of what constituted a 

“Sikh” were possible. For this reason it is fundamentally futile to seek to 

define what was the essence of the Sikh faith in the nineteenth century. 

Sikh personhood and practice for much of the nineteenth century implied 

a series of changing relationships and subjective moods”. 

“However, in the late nineteenth century a growing body of Sikhs 

took active part in a systematic campaign to redefine their faith and purge 

it of what they saw as Hindu accretions and a Brahmanical stranglehold 

over their ritual.” 

In his childhood Guru Nanak Dev befriended a low caste poor 

Muslim whom he called Bhai (Brother) Mardana. Both travelled and lived 

together all their lives. Many Muslims loved Nanak as their Pir. The folk 

song “Nanak Shah Fakir; Hindu Ka Guru, Musalman Ka Pir” is there to 

describe his popularity with the Hindus and Muslims alike. Mian Mir, a 

Muslim, laid the foundation of the Golden Temple. Paindey Khan, a 

leader of the defending forces of the Guru, was a Muslim. At the time of 

Guru Amar Das, one of the preachers was Muslim-born Allah Yar Khan. 

Many Muslims smoke and shave their heads. Many Hindus do the same. 

To conclude from this that Sikhs also shave their beards and smoke freely, 

is dearly illogical and perverse. 

Gurmat says that “The Lord is no one’s property 21 ". What Guru Nanak 

preached, was meant, not just for Sikhs who would accept him as their 

Guru, but for everyone, whether a Hindu, a Muslim, a Yogi, a Nath or a 

Sidh. In other words Gurmat is not the property of Sikhs alone, but, like 

modem science, it is for everyone who wishes to avail oneself of it. In 

case, some people, other than Sikhs, believe in the teachings of Guru 

Nanak, without leaving some of their old beliefs, and practise a mixture 

of rituals, neither the Sikhs have the right to force these people to give up 

their old rituals, nor have such persons themselves or any scholar the right 

to claim that they are the representatives of the Sikhs, and that whatever 

they practise, is approved by Gurmat. 

If some Udasis or anyother group had some association with the 

Gurus, or even had relations with them, while continuing to

281 

follow non-Sikh rituals, it is wrong to list them among Sikhs of the Gurus. 

To be called a Sikh one has to follow Sikh practices, as described by the 

Gurus and also give up non-Sikh rituals. The Sikhs have their own Scripture 

and way of life, which cannot be confused with those of Hindus. 

To explain the above a parallel example can be given from the 

West. We know some Christians do not eat meat (many more of them are 

giving it up). From this, one cannot conclude that Christians are vegetarian 

by faith. Similarly, from persons who keep long hair (Many Hindu Yogis 

do even today), worship idols, it is wrong to conclude that Sikhs believe 

in idolatry. Nor can existence of aberrations like adultery and use of drugs 

among Christians mean that the Bible, The Guide for a Christian, approves 

of them or the faults are a Christian practice. 

Because of his wrong assumptions, Oberoi makes factual mistakes 

as well. For example, he writes: “In 1915 Arur Singh, a manager of the 

Golden Temple, in a highly controversial move, ordered the removal of 

all Hindu idols that had been lodged in the precincts of the holy shrine for 

several generations.” 

It may be stated that this decision was taken by Mr. King, the 

then Deputy Commissioner of Amritsar, and not by Arur Singh. The 

latter did only what the British Government wanted him to do. (Arur 

Singh, even blessed General Dyer for his “bravery” for the mass murder 

of people in Jallianwala Bagh in April 1919). Actually it was the Sikhs 

who convinced Mr. King by quoting the authority of hymns in the Guru 

Granth Sahib, that idol worship was against Sikhism. After full satisfaction 

on this point, Mr. King ordered the removal of idols from the premises of 

the Golden Temple. 

By describing the order as “controversial” the author takes the 

stand that idol worship is approved by Gurmat, and that the objection to 

the removal of idols was justified. This shows complete ignorance of the 

author regarding Sikhism and Gurbani. Such value judgements by the 

author without citing the authority or knowledge of Guru Granth Sahib, 

is just preposterous. 

To leave no doubt about his unjustified thesis that Sikhs had gone 

astray from the “original” Sikh faith, he states: “However, in the late 

nineteenth century, a growing body of Sikhs took active part in a systematic 

campaign to redefine their faith and purge it of what they saw as Hindu 

accretions and a Brahmanical stranglehold over their rituals.”

282 

Such ignorance of the Guru Granth can be displayed only at 

a platform where the listeners are as ignorant of the doctrines in the Granth 

Sahib, as the author himself. 

It is agreed that the Sikh faith has been defined to make it independent of 

Hindu rituals and their philosophy; but Oberoi holds wrong people 

responsible for it. It was Guru Nanak, and not Bhai Kahan Singh or the 

“growing body of Sikhs”, who defined it. Further it is defined in the Guru 

Granth and the lives of the Gurus. The Guru refused to put on a Janju or 

to accept Hindu mythology and philosophy. He loved everyone equally 

including Muslims and the so-called low castes and untouchables detested 

by the Brahminical order. Further, the Gurus did not accept Brahma, 

Vishnu and Mahesh, the three highest gods of Hindus, the existence of 

Hindu Amrit, besides numerous other Hindu doctrines and practices. 

The whole discussion boils down to the fact that Oberoi’s thesis 

has no basis. He appears to be completely innocent of the knowledge and 

existence of Gurbani, which clearly and emphatically rejects the Hindu 

philosophy, the rituals and their religious values. After accepting Gurbani 

as the base of Sikh faith, one has no choice, but to agree that the Gurus 

founded a faith independent of the then existing faiths. And Bhai Kahan 

Singh did nothing more than invoking its authority. 

Oberoi concluded: 

“It is my thesis that the absence of any malice between Sikhs and 

Hindus was the result of an elaborate cultural code in which members of 

the two traditions adhered to the same rules or social organisation and 

rites de passage.” 

The statement reveals another meaningless assertion of the author. 

For, it assumes that followers of different cultures must have malice, and 

that people having the same culture and rites de passage must have no 

malice. We find both these assumptions to be wrong all over the world. 

During the Sikh rule the Sikhs displayed no malice even against Muslims, 

some of whom had persecuted them. During their struggle with the 

Muslims, the behaviour of the Sikhs with their adversaries was exemplary. 

Oberoi’s thesis falls when tested to evaluate the Muslim and Sikh relations. 

Sikhs did not ill-treat Muslims or nursed ill-will or malice against Muslim 

residents of Punjab, even when they were being hounded and murdered 

by Muslim rulers. Here is what a Muslim writes about Sikhs of the 18th 

century:

283 

“In no case would they slay a coward...nor plunder the wealth or ornaments 

of a woman... no adultery…..no thief at all nor is there any house-breaker 

born among them.” 

Concluding Remarks : 

The following may help reveal the facts in true perspective: 

The faith, later called Sikhism, was founded by Guru Nanak, and the 

people were educated for two centuries how to live according to that faith 

and obtain peace in their life. The core of the direction consists of: 

-God is the Creator of all mankind, therefore we are equal. 

-To love God we should love people (His children). 

- Worship of idols or graves and practice of other hollow rituals 

have no value. 

- Dividing human beings into low or high castes is a sin. 

- Considering any religion, community or sect as superior or inferior 

is against the law of God. 

- There is no place like heaven or hell, and there is no person like 

Dharam Raj to judge our actions. God Himself decides everything 

in the universe. 

The complete rejection of Brahminism and their philsophy by the 

Gurus themselves (not started by Bhai Kahn Singh, as mistakenly assumed 

by the author) made people revolt against the hegemony of the Brahmins. 

Gurus used very strong words to expose these religious and political bloodsuckers 

of society: 

“The Muslim judge utters falsehood and eats filth; 

The Brahmin guilty of slaughter of humanity, 

makes show of pious bathing; 

The yogi, blind of insight, knows not the true praxis. The devices 

of all three ruin mankind 22 .” 

“Rulers are turned beasts of prey, their officers,hounds; 

None do they allow in peace to rest. 

The subordinates wound the people with their claws: 

You dogs, lick on the blood and marrow of the poor. 

Know... All such wilI be disgraced and branded as false 23 .” 

After the annexation of Punjab, Mahants who were patronised by 

the Britishers started following the directions of the Brahmins, and 

introduced many anti-Sikh practices in the Gurdwaras to increase their 

income and visitors or pilgrims of those Hindu converts to Sikhism who 

became Sikhs during Sikh Rule and again reverted to Hinduism after 

annexation of Punjab. Safe from protests of the Sikhs, these stooges of 

the Government

284 

gave up the practice and teachings of Sikh principles of service and sacrifice. 

They started living an immoral and anti-Sikh life. Women who went to the 

Gurdwaras, were often molested, cases of even rape are on record. Because 

of Brahmincal influence, the Sikh converts from the so-called low castes, 

were not respected as Sikh pilgrims, but were treated as in Hindu temples 

untouchables and insulted. They had nobody to fear, the British being at 

their back. There was much more than that. This gave birth to the Gurdwara 

movement. The stand of the British government was that Mahants had the 

sole right over the properties of the Gurdwaras and the practice of rituals 

there. The Sikhs had to struggle against this, 

putting everything at stake, even their lives. They had to pay a heavy price 

for this, and suffer hundreds of deaths, thousands of permanent injuries, 

confiscation of their real estates and their properties, loss of their pensions, 

medals, and payment of fines, etc. It is this struggle, regarding which the 

author writes in a derogatory tone, that” a growing body of Sikhs to redefine 

their faith and purge it of what they saw as Hindu accretions.” The truth is 

that the Sikhs had to make unparalleled sacrifices to re-establish Sikh practices 

in the Gurdwaras, and stop wrong practices introduced by the greedy, 

licentious and vicious Mahants. 

Oberoi’s paper is a classic case of how ignorance of the Scripture 

of the Sikhs and three hundred years of the history of their struggle, sacrifices 

and martyrdoms, makes for poor study, and no amount of verbose assertions 

can be a substitute of patient and serious academic work. It reminds us of 

the story of Plato’s men in the cave. Religions are not defined or redefined 

by class room lectures or sheltered writers. Could there be thousands of 

Christian martyers for centuries on end, without a Christ on the Cross and 

the Christian gospels? And, could there be a resurgent Christian Church and 

Society, without the sufferings and sacrifices of the early Christions in the 

first centuries of the Christian era? 

Sikhism has been defined by the spiritual experience of the Gurus recorded 

in the Guru Granth Sahib and their lives and martydoms spread over two 

hundred years. It was this definition that enabled the Sikhs to rise again 

despite the repeated orders of the Mugul Administrations that no Sikh should 

remains alive in its domain and the fixation of an ample reward for every 

Sikh killed. Religions are defined by the Spiritual experiences of the Prophets, 

and that definition is brought home to a people by the blood of sufferings 

and martydoms. Such definitions once made, can be invoked but

285 

not redefined or altered. We wonder if ignorance of Sikh Scripture or 

religious history, as in the case of Oberoi, can ever lead to any worthwhile 

academic understanding of it or its sociological developments. 

REFERENCES 

1 Adl Granth : “Japu Ji” 

2 Ibid: Page 843 

3 Ibid:"Bara Maha", Majh M-5:page 136 

4 Ibid: “Japu Ji” 

5 Ibid: Ramkali M-5; page 890 




9 Ibid:Page 91 





14 Ibid:Asa di Var: M-1:page 472 


16 Ibid: Asa di Var, M-I; page 463 



19 Ibid : Page 324 




23 Ibid: Page 1288

18 

SOME UNEXAMINED ASSUMPTIONS IN WESTERN 

STUDIES OF SIKHISM 

JAMES R. LEWIS 

286 

Among Western students of the Sikh religion, it has become 

Commonplace to observe, directly or by implication, the supposedly 

baneful effects of orthodoxy on Sikh scholars studying their own 

tradition. To cite one comparatively non-judgemental example: 

Sikh studies in the Punjab is an expression of a 

scholarship of the traditional type which is in 

conformity with currently accepted orthodoxy. 1 

The implication in this observation is that while Western 

academics are free to produce truly objective scholarship, Sikh 

academics, regrettably, are not. I am, of course, exaggerating the point, 

but such over statement allows us to see the position clearly enough 

to be able to turn the issue around and question one of its principal 

assumptions- Do non-Sikh academics really bring an objective, 

unprejudiced perspective to their work? To anyone familiar with the 

contemporary ferment in such areas as hermeneutics 2 , philosophy of 

science 3 , post-structuralism 4 , etc, the answer to this question must be 

“no”, 

In the latter part of the Twentieth Century, it has been forcefully 

brought home to us that-despite our best efforts to be as neutral and 

as objective as possible—we inevitably bring certain presuppositions 

to the task of understanding. Thus the agenda which Sikh academics 

bring to their work is not inherently different (except for the fact of 

being more conscious, and hence, one could argue, less pernicious) 

than the various agendas of Western academics. 5 Examples of the kinds 

of interpretations imposed on Sikhs by Western observers are easier 

to perceive in Eighteenth and Nineteenth Century accounts than in 

contemporary scholarship.

287 

The clearest and certainly the most well-known example is the 

narrow and overtly prejudiced Christian perspective 6 which Ernest 

Trumpp brought to his translation of the sacred scripture of the Sikhs? 

e.g. his comment that the Adi Granth was “perhaps the most shallow 

and empty book that exists, in proportion to its size.” The influence 

of an individual’s Christian background need not, however, always be 

either negative or fully conscious; e.g., the observation of Major James 

Browne that the Sikh religion “appears to bear the kind of relation to 

the Hindoo religion, which the protestant does to the Romish”. 8 

Although not an accurate opinion (Sikhs do not view themselves as 

reformed Hindus), Browne’s remark well demonstrates how, when a 

person’s intention is to record objective information (or even to pass a 

favourable judgement, as appears to have been part of Browne’s intent 

here), his or her background unconsciously shapes, and in this case 

distorts, his or her perception. 

The focus of the present paper will be on the treatment of Sikhism 

by current (second half of the Twentieth Century) Western (mostly 

North American) scholars of religion. Their portrayals of the Sikhs 

are, like Browne’s, not consciously prejudicial, but (and again like 

Browne) their categories of analysis tend inevitably to distort as much 

as they reveal. These categories are, as will be seen, far more subtle 

than Trumpp’s or Browne’s. To uncover their structure and to 

demonstrate their distoring effects, I have resorted to two indirect 

approaches: (1) In the first part of the paper I will go over some of the 

earlier Sikh scholarship produced by British administrators. This 

examination will enable us, to gain a clearer sense of how the interest 

and commitments of the observer enter into the production of 

apparently neutral, descriptive “knowledge”. (2) In the second part of 

the paper, I will pick out certain specific items from contemporary 

scholarly discourse about Sikhs—syncretism, neo-Sikhism, and the 

early pacifism/later militancy distinction— and contrast them with 

comparable discourse about Western religious traditions. The 

differential deployment of these apparently neutral terms of analysis 

will enable us to uncover the value -judgements embedded in them. 

Early British Accounts 

The earliest accounts of the Sikhs by the British are, as stated 

above, instructive because they permit us to see how the 

presuppositions and interests of the observer shape his or her 

understanding and interpretation of phenomena. The British in

288 

India were very clearly not disinterested scholars. 

They were, instead, practical men with self-conscious political 

interests; “Officials felt that they had to know more about Sikhs in 

order to deal with them.” 9 Such concerns not only set the agenda for 

which aspects of the Sikh phenomenon were picked out for 

examination, but they also shaped the interpretation of the 

phenomenon. 

Henry T. Prinsep, for instance, wrote his origin of the Sikh Power 

in the Punjab’ 10 at a time when the British were anxious about a possible 

Russian invasion from the Northwest, and a time when the kingdom 

of Ranjit Singh stood between the British and the Russians. As one 

might anticipate, his study of the Sikhs focussed on their political and 

military exploits. However, in addition to determining his choice of 

material, Prinsep’s political interests also caused him to interpret the 

Sikh religion as being “essentially political in nature” 11 ; i.e., motivation 

which governed Prinsep’s own activity was projected (unconsciously) 

into the Sikhs. 

Another characteristic of early British thinking about India which 

we want to note is how certain interpretations became established in 

habitual, taken-for-granted ways of talking about India and Indians. A 

good example of what I mean by this is the set of interpretations 

which came to be expressed in the term “martial race”. What probably 

originated as simply a shorthand way of referring to Indian people 

with a history of militancy (and thus a determinant of who was 

recruited into the Indian army) eventually expanded to encompass a 

rather elaborate, pseudoscientific theory about the effects of the 

environment on the human species. The full-blown martial race theory 

was a theory of racial deterioration which claimed to take into account 

the effect of prolonged years of varying religions on their adherents 

of early marriage, of premature brides, and juvenile eroticism, of a 

thousand years of malaria and hook-worm, and other ills of neglected 

sanitation in a hot climate, and the deteriorating effect of aeons of 

tropical sun in races that were once white and lived in uplands and on 

cool steppes. 12 

Thus the term “martial race,” which in the Nineteenth Century 

carried the sense of being a neutral, descriptive statement about an 

obvious fact, actually functioned as part of a racist ideology which 

served to help legitimate British rule of India. With respect to the 

Sikhs community, for example, martial race theory

289 

served to “keep Sikhs largely out of administrative and professional 

jobs in Punjab which were dubbed as non-martial in character and 

hence unsuited to the genius of the warlike Sikhs”. 13 

This is not to assert, however, the British administrators 

consciously “invented” the theory of martial races and then cynically 

foisted the notion onto their unsuspecting subjects— the English 

generally accepted the idea as readily and unreflectively as did the 

Indians. (Indian communities quarreled over who should be designated 

as “martial”, not over the notion itself. 14 ) But rather, like Prinsep’s 

idea of the political nature of Sikhism, the evolution of the 

term—and its acquisition of ideological connotations—was shaped 

unconsciously by the interest and assumptions of British imperialism. 

One final notion from his earlier period that I wish to examine 

is the civilized/savage (or civilized/primitive, civilized/ uncivilized, 

etcetera) distinction. Like the theory of martial races, the civilized/ 

savage distinction appeared to have the status of a neutral fact while 

actually embodying part of the ideology of British imperialism. The 

ideological dimension of this distinction can be seen in the well-known 

(to students of Sikh history) remarks of John Malcolm where he 

explained why the English should study the Sikhs: 

The most savage states are those who have the most prejudices, 

and who are consequently most easily conciliated or offended: 

they are always pleased and flattered, when they find, 

that those whom they cannot but admit to possess 

superior intelligence, are acquainted with their 

history.... 15 

One of missing terms here is “civilised,” but its implied presence 

is indicated by the term “savage”; i.e., civil zed and savage are polar 

ideas which make sense only in opposition to one another. Othermissing 

terms which can be extracted by the same logic of polar 

concepts— are “inferior intelligence” and “least prejudices.” If we 

outline this implied structure, we get something like the following: 

Bitish Sikhs 

Civilized Savage 

Superior inferior 

Intelligent not intelligent 

Unprejudiced prejudiced

290 

By drawing out the implications of this short statement, we 

acquire enough information to get a sense of what is at stake in the 

civilized/savage distinction: “Civilized” and “savage” are valuejudgements 

about superiority and inferiority rather than neutral, 

descriptive terms. 

John Malcolm is an instructive person to examine in this regard 

because he is generally acknowledged to be a fair and accurate observer 

(Considering the limitations of his position and the early period at 

which he wrote) of the Sikhs. Hence it is reasonable to assume that 

Malcom’s reliance on such categories as civilized and savage was not 

intentionally malicious. Rather, these terms were part of the 

unquestioned framework of assumptions which Europeans, including 

Malcolm, brought to their interpretation of non-Europeans, 

The civilized/savage distinction clearly serves to legitimate 

imperialism (civilised nations conquer savage nations in order to bring 

them the benefits of “civilization”), but the roots of this distinction 

spring from a deeper, unconscious source. As indicated in a wide variety 

of contemporary studies of various forms of prejuciice. 16 human beings 

have a deep-seated need to contrast themselves with “others”, and 

thereby to gain a clearer sense of themselves. The “others” (who may 

be members of a different race, a different religion, etcetera) are made 

to serve as mirrors on to which “we” project inverted images of 

ourselves (or of what we ( think we are). Thus if we place particular 

value on our rationality, for example, we tend to see others as irrational 

(e.g. the traditional Europeans distinction between the “rational” West 

and the “irrational” East). Like the other phenomena examined above, 

this tendency causes the observer to distort unconsciously the object 

of his or her investigation. 

To recapitulate briefly, in this section we examined a few examples 

of early British thinking about the Sikhs in order to discover the ways 

in which one’s vested interest and unconscious presuppositions shape 

(and often warp) one’s understanding and interpretations. Our underlying 

assumption was that we would be in a better position to analyze 

the subtle distorting influence in contemporary scholarship if we first 

examined the more obvious distorting influences at work in earlier 

scholarship. The processes and devices of discourse that we uncovered 

bear summary repetition because, if our assumption is correct, we 

should find similar factors at work in more recent scholarship.

291 

(1) The most obvious, and probably the least available, form of 

distortion is introduced by focussing on only one aspect of any given 

phenomenon (e.g., Prinsep’s narrow focus on Sikh military-political 

history). 

(2) More subtle forms of distortion are caused by unconscious 

projections, either (A) ascribing to the other one’s own thoughts and 

motivations (as we saw with Prinsep’s projection of political motives) 

or (B) perceiving the other as being precisely the opposite of oneself. 

(3) Finally, we noted how certain items of discourse—certain 

habitual ways of analyzing an issue, and especially certain key terms 

(such as martial race and civilized/savage)—could acquire the status 

of neutral descriptions, and even be accepted as such by all involved 

parties, while actually embodying a particular ideology and a set of 

implicit value judgements. 

Sikh Syncretism. 

If one examines survey books (especially textbooks) on world 

religions and/or general works on Asian religion, one almost invariably 

finds that Sikhism, if mentioned at all, is usually presented as “a hybrid 

of two old religions, Islam and Hinduism.” 17 There are, however, some 

curious variations on the syncretism theme. One finds, for example, 

that some authors assert that Nanak “stands in a closer relation to 

Hinduism” 18 . while other authors assert that Nanak “leaned rather 

more to Islam than to Hinduism.” 19 Similarly, in opposition to writers 

who explain Sikhism as being “an offshoot of Hinduism”, 20 one can 

discover writers who assert that in Sikhism “there is little doubt that 

the Muslim source predominates”. 21 Still other authors emphasize that 

Sikhism, because of its syncretic character, “is not in any absolute 

sense new”, 22 an opinion not shared by scholars who stress the 

originality of Guru Nanak” 23 over Sikhism’s supposed syncretism. And 

it would probably be possible to find many other such examples of 

disagreement. Thus Hindu/Muslim syncretism, which many writers 

on religion appear to regard as an axiomatic and “obvious” category 

for beginning any analysis of the Sikh religion, turns out to be extremely 

ambiguous, This peculiar state of affairs leads us to ask deeper kinds 

of questions about Sikh syncretism, such as, why has this question 

attracted so much attention? and, what ultimately, is at stake in this 

issue? . 

The answers to these questions are not simple because, as it turns 

out, several different factors came into play here. The

292 

preeminence of syncretism interpretation is due partially to the work 

of certain Sikh scholars who hold to the idea for various reasons, such 

as the desire to demonstrate Sikhism’s inherent ecumenism- a noble 

ideal, undoubtably, but many of the results of this portrayal have been 

unfortunate. One finds, for example, that many of the authors of 

general surveys who rely on this characterization tended to “dismiss 

Sikhism as syncretism, or avoid it altogether” 24 or, when they do deal 

with it in a positive manner, overemphasize its syncretic character 

“due to the attractiveness of the syncretistic religion in a text-book on 

the great world religions.” 25 

The principal objection to the appellation “syncretism, “however, 

is that within Western religions the term was traditionally used to 

denounce sub-groups within the religious community who were 

perceived as having defiled the original revelation by “grafting on 

foreign elements.’ 26 In this light, it is not unreasonable to guess that 

this label was probably originally applied to the Sikhs by British 

administrators or missionaries who wished thereby to convey the 

judgement that Sikhism was spurious. 

To the counter-objection that in contemporary usage the term 

has lost its pejorative connotations, the reply should be to ask, why, 

then are the principal Western religions never labelled “Syncretistic”? 

In other words, there is nothing intrinsically objectionable in the 

assertion that one can find both Hindu and Islamic influences in 

Sikhism, as long as one acknowledges the same state of affairs in 

other religions. Islam for example, was shaped by Judaism, Christianity, 

and ancient (pre-Islamic) Arabian religion. Christianity, contains 

elements of Judaism, Mithraism, Hellenistic religions, and who knows 

what all else. Surely all of the great world faiths have been at least 

partially influenced by their encounter with other religions 27 , In what 

way, then is Sikhism, and not other faiths, a “Syncretism”? Or, to ask 

the same question in a different way, if Islam and Christianity are not 

“syncretisms”, then what other term would be appropriate to describe 

the peculiar blend of influences at work in these religions that would 

be inappropriate in the case of Sikhism? The answer, it sees to me, is 

that any criterion for distinguishing Sikhism from other religions in 

this regard would have to be purely arbitrary. 

The implied judgement—and here we get in the crux of the 

evaluative freight being carried by this apparently neutral,

293 

descriptive term— is that Sikhism can be understood as being roughly 

equivalent to the sum of its parts, whereas other faiths are somehow 

more than the sum of their parts. Or to state this more boldly, the 

founders of other religions were able to supply an extra (revealed? 

creative?) element to their final product that Guru Nanak somehow lacked. 

The distinction at work here is structurally similar to the civilized/savage 

contrast; i.e. “our” religion is revealed whereas “their” religion is a mere 

syncretism. 

This is, of course, overstating the point, but it needs to be made 

perfectly clear that—with all due regard for the good intentions of presentday 

scholars—Sikh “Syncretism” is a holdover from an earlier period of 

scholarship when the various world religions were compared with 

Christianity in order to demonstrate Christianity’s intrinsic superiority. And 

the simple fact that we continue to use the term differentially (to describe 

Sikhism but not other religions) indicates that this judgement continues, 

albeit unconsciously, to be carried in our discourse. 

Neo-Sikhism 

Another term which one sometimes runs across in Western Sikh Scholarship 

is “neo-Sikhism”—a peculiar label which the British apparently 

devised for the purpose of describing the Singh Sabha reform movement. 

Although the term itself is used infrequently (particularly when compared 

with the omnipresent usage of “syncretism”), the attitude, or set of attitudes 

and judgements, embodied in the term are widespread enough to make an 

analysis of it worthwhile. Our way of proceeding will be to ask essentially 

the same types of questions about “neo” Sikhism that we asked about 

Sikh “Syncretism”. 

Neo-Sikhism purports to describe a distinction between pre-Singh 

Sabha Sikhism and post-Singh Sabha Sikhism. Like Sikh syncretism, neo- 

Sikh appears to be a neutral, value-free term. If we look back at its earlier 

usage, however, we find. that one of the constrasting terms to “neo-Sikh” 

was “orthodox Sikh”. 28 i.e., by implication neo—Sikhs were heterodox 

whereas the older Sikhism was “true” or “real” carries these judgemental 

connotations, we can ask, as we did with syncretism, why the “neo” label 

is applied unevenly across world faiths. In other words why, in the wake 

of Luther’s reformation, do we not call Protestants “neo-Christians”? or 

why are post-vatican II Catholics not labelled “neo-Catholics” 

(The only area in Christianity that comes to mind as a place where 

“neo” is employed is when it is used to designate certain schools of

294 

theology; e.g., neo-Orthodoxy and neo-Thomism.) Neo” gets applied 

to religious communities only when Westerners are describing other 

people’s religions—e.g., neo- Taoism, neoConfucianism, neo- 

Hinduism, etcetera— and, more often than not, the label carries the 

sense that “neo” religions are deviations from their true, pristine forms. 

There are at least two possible perspectives from which to understand 

why this term is attached only to “non-Western” religions. 

First, the earlier Protestant assumption was that the 

Reformation had returned Protestants to pristine Christianity. This 

presupposition in turn blinded them to the revision that their own 

tradition had experienced, but did not prevent them from passing 

judgement on the changes which had taken place in other religious 

traditions. This structure is similar to the pattern we saw operating in 

our examination of syncretism; i.e., one caricatures a process which 

one sees in other religions while repressing awareness of the fact that 

the same process has occured within one’s own religion. 

Second, in later periods the West conceived itself as being different 

from the rest of the World by virtue of (among other things) its 

essentially dynamic, progressive, changing character. 29 By implication, 

other cultures were static, unchanging, or even stagnant(another 

example of the West projecting an inverted self-image into the rest of 

the world).This structure influenced the West’s perception of “non- 

Western” religions in a peculiar fashion: Change was natural for Western 

religion (Christianity) but some how unnatural when found in other 

faiths. Christianity is thus able to adapt to the modern world without 

losing its essence, but, as for a religion like that of Sikhs “much of 

their distinctiveness would vanish if a community like the Sikhs were 

to become modern in religion and social practice; and the cement that 

binds the community would disappear as well.’ 30 From this slanted 

perspective, Sikhs who do adapt enough to succeed in the modern 

world have ipso facto betrayed their faith: “Whereas for Nanak, the 

ultimate matter was devotion to the True Name, for the present 

community:, Self-preservation appears to be somewhat more 

important.’ 31 These last couple of statements, although they do not 

make use of the term “neo-Sikhism”, indicate that the same kind of 

attitude is present—an attitude which employs (though not 

consciously) one set of criteria for evaluating Western religions and 

another set of criteria for evaluating others. All religious

295 

communities attempt to remain faithful to the essence of their tradition 

while adapting to changing conditions, and such accommodation does 

not axiomatically imply either the end of community or the substitution 

of practical concerns for religious devotion. Here once again, beneath 

apparently descriptive discourse, we find a value-judgement which reveals 

itself as such when contrasted with the treatment of other (particularly 

Western) religions. . 

Early Pacifism Vs. Later Militancy 

The final item of discourse that I want to pull out for a comparison/ 

contrast type of analysis is not, as with syncretism or neo-Sikhism,a single 

term which embodies a covert judgement, but rather a standard observation 

which— when made by Western academics—is often stated in an overtly 

judgemental manner. The observation I refer to is the contrast between 

the “pacifism” of Nanak and the militancy of Gobind Singh. To extract a 

few items at random from world religion textbooks: 

The Sikhs found themselves forced to abandon the 

non-violent teaching of the early masters... 32 

One of the paradoxes of the Sikh religion is its pacifism 

in theory and militarism in practice: . 33 

Sikhism’s transformation from a passive sect to a fighting 

theocray is a well nigh complete reversal of basic 

values. 34 

More than the pejorative judgements that we examined earlier, one 

is tempted to dispute these remarks at a direct, factual level (e.g.Guru 

Nanak’s attitude was no more “passive 35 than Guru Gobind Singh’s was 

“violent”). Let us, however, sidestep this temptation and take the same 

type of approach utilized in previous sections. In this instance, the 

appropriate question to raise is, Are there other world religions in which 

the founder preached a (atleast apparently) pacifist ethic which later 

followers disregarded? 

Out of the faiths that come immediately to mind, Jainism probably 

has the best record, and Buddhism’s record is uneven. However, 

undoubtedly the religion with the worst record of violence is Christianity. 

If one were to take the words “Christians”, “Christian”, and Christanity’s” 

and subtitute them for “Sikhs”, “Sikh”, and Sikhism’s” in the above 

statements, the statements would be at least as accurate, and probably a 

good deal more accurate, than the orginals. 

To the extent that an author is Christian, or at least from a

296 

Christian background, it might be possible to postulate that a kind of 

“guilt projection” is at work here. In other words, if one is uncomfortable 

with the tension/ contradiction between theory and practice in the 

Christian religion but refuses to face the issue squarely (and thus partially 

represses it), then one is likely to project that contradiction onto other 

religious traditions —whether or not such a tension actually exists in the 

other traditions. Thus the discomfort which is felt about Christianity’s 

self-contradiction gets displaced onto an object which had noting to do 

with the original problem. 

The point here is not to criticize Christianity, but rather to once 

again point out the differential treatment which the Sikh religion has 

received at the hands of Western scholars; i.e., these kinds of evaluative 

remarks would have been less objectionable had similar criticisms been 

levelled against the other world faiths. The only difference between this 

example and the examples in the preceding sections is that here the biases 

are more explicit, and thus should, one would think, not have escaped the 

notice of conscientious academics. 

The line of approach taken in this paper was basically very simple. 

Our principal methodological tool was comparison/ contrast. What we 

did was to focus on particular terms or statements, and then ask why 

these items of discourse were appropriate for describing Sikhism, but not 

appropriate when applied to Western religions. For each item we argued 

that, because there was no criterion for such differential usage, the 

deployment of such discourse signalled the presence of covert valuejudgements, 

and in each section we attempted to articulate precisely what 

these judgements were. 

REFERENCES 

1. John CB. Webstar, “Sikh Studies in the Punjab,” in Mark Juregensmeyer & N. 

Gerald Barrier, Sikh Studies (Berkeley: Graduate TheologicaI Union, 1979, p32. 

2. E.g., refer to the Second major section of Hans-Georg Gadmer’s Truth and 

Method (New York): Crossroad, 1975). 

3. E.g. Thomas S. Kuhn, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (Chicago: 

University of Chicago, 1970). 

4. E.g., the work of Michel Foucault, as in The Archaeology of knowledge (New 

York: Pantheon, 1972).

297 

5. The approach taken in this paper has been decisively shaped by Charles Long’s analysis 

of Western scholarship; e.g., refer to: Charles H. Long, “Human Centres: An Essay 

on Method in the History of Religions,” Scoundings 61(3), 1977, 

pp.400-414. 

6. AC Arora, “Ern est Trumpp”, in Fauja Singh, ed., Historians and Historiography 

of the Sikhs (New Delhi: Oriental Publishers & Distributors,1978), p.155. 

7. Ernest Trumpp, The Adi Granth (London: Allen & Co., 1877) p. cxxii. 

8. Major James Browne, History of the Origin and Progress of the Sikhs in Ganda 

Singh ed. Early European Accounts of the Sikhs (Calcutta: Indian Studies Past and 

Present, 1962; 1st Pub. 1788), pp.13-14. 

9. N.G. Barrier, :”Trumpp and Maculiffe: Western Students of Sikh History and Religion,” 

in Fauja Singh, Op. Cit., pp. 166-167. 

10. Henry T. Prinsep, Origin of the Sikh Power in Punjab (Patiala: Languages Department, 

Punjab, 1970; 1st Pub. 1834). 

11. Gianeshwar Khurana, British Historiography on the Sikh Power in Punjab 

(New Delhi, Bombay, Calcutta, Madras, Bangalore, Hyderabad & Ahmedabad: Allied, 

1985), p.41. 

12. Sir George MacMunn, The Martial Races of India (London: Sampson Low, Marston 

& Co, 1933). p.2. 

13. Hakam Singh, Sikh Studies: A Classified Bibliography of Printed Books in English 

(Patiala: Punjab Pub. House, 1982) p. 12. 

14. T.A Heatcote, The Indian Army (New Yourk: Hippocrene, 1974) p.93. 

15. John Ma1colm, “Sketch of the Sikhs” in M. Macauliffe, H.H.Wilson, Frederic Pincott, 

John Malcom & Sardar Kahan Singh. The Sikh Religion: A symposium (Calcutta: 

Sushil Gupta, 1958; 1st Pu’b.1810), p. 85 

16. E.G., Edward. W. Said, Orientalism (New Your: Vintage, 1979), Sander L. Gilman, 

Difference and Pathology (lthaca: Cornell U.Pr.1985), and Robert F. 

Berkhofer, Jr., The While Man’s Indian (New York: Vintage, 1979). 

17. John A Hardon, Religions of the World (Westminister, MD; Newman, 1963), 

p.224, 

18. D.S.Sarma, ‘The Nature and History of Hinduism,” in Kenneth We. Morgan, ed., 

The Religion of the Hindus (New York: Ronald, 1933), p.4l. 

19. Ninian Smart, The Religious Experience of Mankind (New York: Charles Scribner’s 

Sons, 1976), p. 150. 

20. Niels C Nielsen, Jr., Norvin Hein, Frank E. Reynolds, Alan L. Miller, Samuel 

E. Kariff, Alice C Cochran & Paul Mclean, Religions of the World (New York 

: St. Martin’s, 1983), p. 383. 

21. John A Hutchison, Paths of Faith (New Youk, St. Louis, San Francisco, Toronto, 

London, & Sydney:McGraw-Hill, 1969), p.200. 

22. John, B Noss & David S. Nose, Man’s Religions (New Youk: Macmillan, 1984),.221. 

23. W.H. McLeod, “Sikhism,” In Geoffrey Parrinder, ed., Man and His Gods 

(London, New York, Sydney, & Toronto: Hamlyn, 1971) p.212. 

24. Mark Juergensmeyer, ‘’The Forgotten Tradition: Sikhism in the study of World

298 

Religions;’in Juergensmeyer & Barrier. Op.cit., p.16. 

25. Ibid., p.15. 

26. Paul B. Courtright,”Syncretism and the Formation of the Sikh Tradition,” in Harbans 

Singh & N.Gerald Barrier, eds., Punjab Past and Present: Essays in Honour of 

Dr.Ganda Singh (Patiala, Punjabi V., 1976), p.417. 

27. “All the living religions are complex cultural developments in which can be traced the 

blending of preexisting religious forms.” Herbert Stroup, Founders of living Religions 

(Philadephia: Westminster, 1978), p. 81. 

28. N. Gerald Barrier, The Sikhs and Their Literature (Delhi: Manohar, 1970) 

pp.xiiv-xiiv. 

29. As has been pointed out in a number of recent studies; e.g., Said, Op. Cit., Berkhofer, 

Op.Cit., & Johannes Febian, Time and the Other (New York: Columbia 

U. Pr., 1983). 

30. Eugene F. Irschick, “Sikh ism as a Category for Study,”in Juergensmeyer & Barrier. 

Op.cit., p. 53. 

31. Robert D.Baird & Alfred Bloom, Indian and Far Eastern Religious Traditions 

(New York, Evanston, San Francisco, London: Harper & Row, 1972). p.l05. 

32. Smart, Op.Cit., p.152. 

33. Hardon, Op.cil., p.231 

34. Hutchison, Op.cit., p. 201. 

35. “The Guru, though a man of peace, was not a pacifist “John Ferguson, War and 

Peace in the World’s Religions (New York, Oxford University Pr., 1978. P. 139,

19 

SIKHS IN AMERICA: STRESS AND SURVIVAL 

RANBlR SINGH SANDHU 

299 

INTRODUCTION 

Survival of a community consists of its continued ability to make 

a free public expression of its identity. For a small minority the fear 

that an affirmation of identity might invite hostility, in word deed or 

attitude, from a relatively homogeneous and dominant majority, is the 

primary cause of stress. The prospects for survival depend upon 

numerical strength, existence of areas pf minority concentration, and 

the will to survive. Creation of subsystems to promote survival is a 

function of the economic strength, the educational level and the 

organizational skills of the minority group. 

The Sikh identity is proclaimed by the five k’s, viz., “Kes” (unshom 

hair), “Kangha” (a comb in the hair), “Kachh” (a special type of shorts), 

“Kara” (a steel bangle), and “Kirpaan” (a sword), every Sikh is required 

to have. Over their unshorn hair, Sikh men wear a turban. A Sikh man 

with his beard and turban stands out in a crowd. This high visibility 

makes the Sikhs a special minority. 

The Sikh presence in America is relatively new and the 

composition of this community has changed considerably over the 

years. After a slow growth primarily through immigration, the size 

of the community has increased rapidly since the middle 1960’s. The 

attitudes of the host society have also changed. Early immigrants (upto 

the second World War) faced a hostile host society. Later immigrants 

(after the second World War) constituted a highly educated group of 

professionals who arrived in the United States at a time when the 

world was “shrinking” and cultural diversity was finding increased 

acceptance in the host society. They were, therefore, able to break 

some barriers to economic and social success and, to a certain extent, 

influence the host community opinions regarding themselves and 

immigrants in general.

300 

They were able to ensure good education for their children and also 

set up mechanisms for elementary religious education. Recent 

immigration, of relatives of the previous immigrants, has been spurred 

by events in Punjab. Sikh young men, particularly those from Punjab 

villages, are “getting out” not only for economic reasons but also to 

escape arbitrary arrest, torture and possible death. This group, 

representative of the average village population in Punjab, includes a 

large proportion of non-professionals. However, their influx has 

contributed to growth in numbers and to the emergence of strong 

local communities centered around numerous Gurdwaras. In addition 

to immigrants, some Americans of European and African ancestry 

have converted to Sikhism giving the community a multi-racial 

character. The American converts have been quite assertive and have 

actively sought official recognition of the Sikh lifestyle. 

In this paper we look at the nature and level of stress of being a 

Sikh in America and discuss the survival of the Sikh religion in 

America. We attempt to separate cultural survival from the religious. 

Inter-community as well as intra-community stresses are discussed. 

Survival mechanisms devised by the community are surveyed along 

with a look at the future. 

SIKHS IN AMERICA 

a. Classification 

The Sikh minority in America has changed in respect of numbers, 

level of education, and strength of the bond with the parent country, 

Punjab, and its language and culture. In a chronological classification, 

we can identify four groups, viz., the early immigrants and their 

offspring; the primary immigrants of 1960 to 1984 and the American 

converts along with their children; and recent immigrants. These groups 

represent different educational and economic levels, different periods 

in time reflecting different host attitudes, different types of stress faced, 

and different means of survival adopted by individuals and the 

community with varying degree of success. We could also classify the 

minority experience in another way into two categories; immigrants 

and American converts to the Sikh faith in one group and their children 

in the other. The immigrants and the converts comprise people who 

chose to be in a situation of stress and were prepared for the 

consequences of being “different” and, in the case of American 

converts, for the criticism and hostility of family and friends. Their 

children, on the other hand, are placed in a stressful situation

301 

involuntarily, have the responsibility of ensuring the survival of the 

community, and are in greater need for support mechanisms. Survival 

as a community is entirely dependent on the extent to which the new 

generation is interested in and successful at defining and preserving 

its distinct heritage. 

b. Sikh Immigration to America. 

Sikh immigration to North America started around the turn of 

the century. However, restrictions were quickly placed on further 

immigration. Dusenbury states: “By the late 1940’s, Canada had fewer 

than two thousand Sikh residents, mostly Jats labouring in the wood 

industries of British Columbia. At the same time, there were fewer 

than 1500 South Asians in the United States, most of whom were Jat 

Sikhs working as agriculturists in rural areas of California. 1 " The early 

Sikh immigrants had to face legal, social, economic and even physical 

barriers to material success. Unable to bring their families from Punjab, 

or arrange for marriage to Punjabi women, they could not pass on 

their attachment to Punjab culture and the Sikh religion to the next 

generation. Most of them wished to, and many did, go back to Punjab 

to spend the later part of their life in surroundings they had fond 

memories of and a social environment in which they were respected. 

The roots of the community were shallow. In 1968, Chakravorti 

concluded: “Sikh community in El Centro is “dying” in cultural sense 

since the hold of its ethnic subsystem is slipping from the second 

generation. 2 

"The end of the second World War saw a lowering of barriers 

to Asian immigration to America. At the same time, India won freedom 

from British rule and was in desperate need of technical know how 

for economic and industrial development. This was procured not only 

by hiring foreign specialists but, more significantly, by sending selected 

Indian scientists and engineers to Europe and America for training, by 

expanding facilities for higher education within India, and using these 

scientists trained abroad as teachers, to generate qualified manpower 

in the long term. Many scientists and engineers were sent by the 

Central and State Governments in India, some under United Nations 

auspices, for advanced study at American universities. Others came 

on their own. They all carried back stories which triggered a strong 

“pull” for the newly emerging class of educated young. Jawahar Lal 

Nehru, India’s first Prime Minister, gave the highest priority to 

education and in only a few years after independence, India was 

producing more professionals than it could provide satisfying

302 

employment for. The shortage of the early 1950’s had turned to a surplus 

by the middle 1960’s. For example, Punjab graduated less than 30 

engineers in 1948 from a refugee college located in Roorkee (in the 

neighboring state of Uttar Pradesh). By 1965 there were four engineering 

colleges in the state admitting over a thousand students a year. Almost 

guaranteed employment, quick promotions, and heavy responsibilities 

for large projects that excited the imagination and tested the talents of 

engineers and scientists recruited soon after freedom were replaced 

by uncertainty and frustration for graduates of two decades later. India’s 

industrial development and the accompanying growth of employment 

opportunities had lagged behind growth in education. The coincidental 

fact of liberalization of immigrant laws in the United States and Canada 

in the 1960’s resulted in a large number of Sikh professionals coming 

over as immigrants. According to Nasser Bush, 86 percent of Sikhs in 

a sample taken in 1972 had entered Canada in the four years since the 

1967 Act. Of these, 84 percent indicated economic betterment as a 

motive of immigration. A better social environment for children to 

grow in was a reason indicated by all. 3 

Recent Sikh immigration has largely been of dependents and 

relatives of the primary immigrants of earlier periods. The “push” 

created by large scale suppression of the Sikhs in Punjab since 1984 

has contributed to the influx of young men who wish to get out of 

Punjab regardless of what the future may hold for them. They-have 

depended upon the hospitality and assistance of relatives and friends 

in “settling down.” True to the Sikh tradition, most of them quickly 

become self-supporting. The new immigrants own and drive taxis, work 

at and own gas stations, and work in factories and industrial 

establishments. Many have started businesses catering to the special 

needs of the growing community. 

C. Sikhs Are a Special Minority. 

A minority may be a group whose members profess the same 

faith, have the same national origin, share an ethnic background, or 

belong to the same race different from that of the majority of the 

population. Many minority groups share more than one of these 

distinguishing features. Mexican, Italian, Irish, Polish, German 

communities in America consist of members with common 

ethnicity and national origin. Hindus have distinct religion and 

national origin. The black minority is racially distinct but in 

religion and culture has become quite close to the majority. The

303 

East Asian and Southeast Asian minorities are racially and culturally 

distinct. The Sikhs in America, at the present time, are primarily 

identified by congregational prayerin the Gurdwara and the external 

symbols of the Sikh faith. In addition, because a large majority consists 

of first generation immigrants, they are attached to Punjabi language, 

dress, and diet, and generally practice endogamy. Most regard Punjab 

as the “homeland”. Being different in so many ways, and sharing some 

of these distinguishing characteristics with other minority groups, 

create special problems for the Sikhs. The host society, in line with 

typical stereotyping trends, would like to bracket all dark-skinned 

people, including Sikhs, into a single unit. Yet, the distinctive beard 

and turban set the Sikh apart and often make him a special target for 

discrimination and mistrust. In discussing survival of Sikhs we must 

consider the cultural, regional and racial factors separately from the 

religious. Sikhs share their Punjab culture and ethnicity with other 

people from that region and racial distinction loses its importance when 

we include American Sikh converts in the Sikh religious community. 

IMMIGRANTS IN AMERlCA- Adaptation and Assimilation 

Caucasian immigrants socially assimilate into the host community 

usually within a generation. Their communities are relatively large and 

non-visible i.e, not identifiable at sight. Their chief survival interest is 

in maintaining a link with the parent country’s language and culture 

which, in general, is not difficult if the parent country is a free nation. 

The immigrants, and their children after them, can continue to define 

their cultural identity simply by reference to the “homeland.” In some 

cases, the national origin may also define a church affiliation. In these 

cases, the religious and the ethnic identities reinforce each other 

improving the chances of survival. South Asian and other non-white 

immigrants, the “visible” minorities, fall into two groups. Some 

assiduously seek assimilation and eventually acquire the culture, habits 

and even the prejudices of the host community giving up their native 

language, dress, and diet as well as the observance of religious customs. 

Most of those who were non-Christians at the time of their immigration 

do not adopt Christianity as their new religion, but essentially become 

non-religious. However, because the host community continues to 

regard all persons of one skin color as a single distinct minority group, 

this group finds social assimilation to be elusive. Other South-Asians 

are willing to

304 

“accommodate, adjust and adapt in respect of dress, diet and language 

and even acculturize but retain their links to the parent 

country and religion and attempt to pass these on to the next generation 

through the establishment of ethnic and religious subsystems. Many ethnic 

subsystems take the form of population concentrations. 

STRESSES FACED BY SIKHS IN AMERICA 

a. Interaction with the Host Community. 

Stress for a member of the minority community arises primarily 

from feeling of being treated as an outsider by the majority community. 

On occasions the majority has acted deliberately to exclude the immigrant 

and even the following generations from the mainstream. Active hostility 

against “Asians” and “Hindus” forced the early Sikh immigrants into lowpaying 

jobs confining them, with some notable exceptions, to the lowest 

economic groups in society. They were not allowed to bring their spouses 

from Punjab and if they married an American citizen, she would lose her 

citizenship by such marriage. They had been declared ineligible to acquire 

citizenship and land laws provided that aliens ineligible for citizenship 

could not buy, own, or lease agricultural land. Many married catholic 

Mexican women and their children grew up as catholics. Social interaction 

with the host community was limited by language. As far as the host 

society was concerned the only distinction they retained was the 

involuntary one of skin color they shared with all South-Asians. The host 

society treated them as members of this larger minority. 

Later, highly educated immigrants too had to face difficulties in 

finding employment, accommodation, professional advancement and 

education of their children in spite of the existence of anti-discrimination 

laws and absence of restrictions on acquiring property. A common question 

at job interviews has been : “Are you prepared to adopt the American 

dress?” The real question is: “Are you willing to cut your hair?” Sikh 

employees who became citizens are asked by their supervisors and 

colleagues if they plan to cut their hair. Discouraged in their quest for 

suitable employment in their fields of specialization or having had 

unpleasant experience on the job with respect to advancement and 

recognition, many highly qualified Sikh engineers and scientists have found 

alternative careers in owner-operated businesses. There are cases of Sikhs 

with Master’s degrees unable to find any employment primarily because 

of the reluctance of the employers

305 

in hiring “different looking guys.” In looking for housing, this writer was 

once told by a landlady: “we do not rent apartments to people with 

whiskers.” In 1978 an American Sikh citizen, accompanying his wife at 

her naturalization was ordered by the U.S. District Judge to remove his 

turban or leave the court. 4 In 1982 an American Sikh was told by his 

employer to comply: with a new safety policy that directed men to be 

clean-shaven. 5 In 1984, a Deputy Registrar in Ohio refused to renew the 

driving license because the American Sikh would not agree to have his 

picture taken without his turban. 6 As recently as 1990, a Sikh child in 

Ohio was told that he could not play basketball in his middle school 

because of a rule forbidding headgear during play. There have been 

numerous such incidents. Dress codes for employees, membership of an 

association, laws requiring helmets other safety headgear, etc. have 

continued to create stressful situations for Sikhs. The immigrait or the 

convert Sikh understands the situation and may either succumb and cut 

his hair or insist on his right to practice his faith and fight, some times 

successfully, to get the rules’ changed. However, Sikh children do not 

understand why people would not let them be Sikhs and find such 

confrontations extremely troublesome. Sikhs working as physicians, 

engineers, scientists and the like led relatively sheltered lives with most of 

their interaction with the host society limited to educated and well-to-do 

Americans. However, occasionally they too had to run into other segments 

of the host population and their experience was far from pleasant. A 

surgeon working as a resident at a midwestern hospital would go to work 

before sunrise to avoid comments about his turban. Recent immigrants 

who drive taxis, work in factories, or run small businesses, have to constantly 

live with all levels of racial, ethnic and religious prejudices. Stories of 

attacks by hoodlums on Asian and particularly Sikh workers are common. 

During the Iran hostage crisis, many less educated Americans would take 

turbaned 

Sikhs to be Iranian followers of Ayatollah Khomeini. There were 

several incidents of violence against Sikhs. 

The host society has changed since the days of the early immigrants. 

A large majority of people are enlightened enough to accept equality as a 

matter of principle. In each of the cases mentioned in an earlier 

paragraph, the problem was resolved. The judge responded to 

the press coverage of the incident by inviting the person concerned 

to his chambers and apologizing. The Ohio

306 

Bureau of Motor Vehicles was contacted by the State Representative for 

the area and the Deputy Registrar was duly instructed to accomodate the 

religious beliefs of citizens. However, the feelings of discouragement, 

harrassment and having to fight to be accepted take their toll. A turbaned 

Sikh is still an unusual figure and children will ask: “Are you a genie?” 

People are asked by perhaps well-meaning strangers, “Do you plan to go 

back to your own country?” Being asked this question after having been 

in the United States as a naturalized citizen for over 20 years is 

disconcerting. However, it is even more stressful for Sikh children when 

they, born in America or brought here at a very young age by their parents 

and not knowing any other country as theirs, are asked the same question. 

It can only confuse them and make them feel rejected by the host 

community. 

b. Stresses Within the Sikh Community. 

A basic dilemma for Sikhs in America is whether they would like to 

be recognized as a distinct religious community in the general population 

or as a religious subsect within the larger group of Asian-Indians in 

America. In the former case, they would have to retain the five K’s which 

distinguish them as Sikhs regardless of their national origin and skin color. 

There are intra-community stresses between people who have discarded 

or are willing to discard the external symbols of their faith and still like to 

be considered Sikhs and those who are opposed to this form of 

accomodation as being a repudiation of Sikh identity. The conflict is due 

to different beliefs as well as the desire for, and contrary to it the fear of, 

absorption in the larger Indian or South-Asian community with progressive 

loss of religious identity. 

Persons who were originally Sikhs and chose to discard the principal 

outward symbol of their religion, the unshorn hair along with some of the 

other K’s, can be placed in three groups. The classification is not exclusive 

and the same person might belong to one group at one stage in his life and 

switch to another later on. The first group consists of those who give up 

their religious beliefs altogether and essentially merge into the larger 

miniority of South-Asian immigrants. This merger involves losing their 

identity as a Sikh. They do not maintain a connection with the rest of the 

community and indeed do not interact with it except on occasions when 

the community participates in the larger ethnic or regional 

festivals of the South-Asian minority. The second group consists 

of those who succumb to pressures of obtaining a

307 

livelihood or advancement at work and pass the blame on to the host 

society as being intolerant. These include some of the earlier immigrants 

who felt coerced into cutting their hair in order to secure employment, 

lived with a feeling of guilt, and switched back in their old age or when 

they went back to India. Some who were not able to do so wished that at 

death their bodies be cremated. Their relatives would tie a turban around 

the head if the deceased happened to be a male. The Sikh prayer would 

be said at the occasion. These persons would generally insist on the “Bhai” 

(caretaker) in the Gurdwara being a “Kesdhari” (one who does not cut his 

hair) Sikh. They accept their inability to cope with the pressure to conform 

as a weakness and respect the Sikh tradition and those who are able to 

adhere to it in spite of the stressful situation they are placed in. The third 

group do not believe “Amrit” ceremony (formal initiation as a Sikh by 

taking “Khande da Pahul”) is necessary and dispute the necessity of 

keeping hair. They insist that the distinguishing Sikh symbols (the five 

K’s) are anachronistic and that the faith does not require them. They are 

convinced that the majority community is racist and insist that a Sikh, 

whether a newcomer or a child of Sikh immigrants, will not be able to 

find employment or be accepted by the host society until he cuts his hair. 

They will make fun of a newcomer or even coerce him to make him 

succumb. Some are aggressive to the point of, publicly ridiculing their 

own heritage. An “Amritdhari” Sikh immigrant was told by his cleanshaven 

brother that he would have to shave off before he would be allowed 

to venture out of the house. They believe that those who do not cut their 

hair are “brahmins” of the Sikhs. Recently, an older Sikh immigrant taunted 

a young Sikh scientist sporting a flowing beard and working under his 

supervision: “Are you working as a scientist in a laboratory or as a priest in 

a Gurdwara?” Some among this group profess strong belief in the Sikh 

religion, claim that they say the daily Sikh prayer and regularly read Siri 

Guru Granth Sahib at home. They take active interest in the Gurdwara, 

insist on their eligibility to officiate at religious ceremonies and to serve 

on Gurdwara management committees. They do not believe their religion 

to be separate from Hinduism and perceive themselves as tolerant and 

moderate. This group is often in conflict with the Sikhs who maintain 

their religious symbols in matters of representing Sikh interests, managing 

Sikh Gurdwaras, etc. One might say that this group is seeking to redefine 

the Sikh faith to fit their new appearance.

308 

Even among Sikhs who maintain the religious symbols there are 

some who consider it important that a Sikh take “Khande da Pahul” and 

observe the “Rehat”, that prayer and preparedness regime prescribed 

for the Sikh. Others, sporting the five K’s do not go through the 

initiation but consider themselves to be religious moderates. Many of 

these moderates and those from the third group described previously 

point out that there are some among properly initiated Sikhs who do 

not observe the “Rehat”. These differences are among the major causes 

of continuing squabbles in most Gurdwaras and Sikh religious 

organizations. 

The Sikh religion teaches equality of all people regardless of 

caste, religious belief, racial origin, and sex. However, in most Sikh 

congregations, the members have different socio-economic, educational 

and ethnic background. Some who consider themselves to be 

intellectually or financially elite are unable or unwilling to interact 

with those who are not. There are cases where the educated elite of 

the 1960' s built the Gurdwaras and now other, more recent immigrants, 

with less education, control them because of their numerical strength. 

The elite often resent this, stay away from the Gurdwaras, and gradually 

move away from the religious fold. 

As the number of Gurdwaras has grown, a number of full-time 

caretakers (Bhais) have been hired to look after them and to provide 

leadership in religious ceremonies. The Sikh religion has no priests but 

many of these caretakers who have musical skills in singing verses 

from Siri Guru Granth Sahib have taken on and been granted the role 

of priests. Many Sikhs are impatient with this induction of priesthood 

into the faith and would like to do away with the practice. 

The religious services in various Gurdwaras do not follow any 

uniform pattern. Some Sikhs insist that the proceedings in the 

Gurdwaras should follow the patterns established by the Shiromani 

Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee in Punjab but many of the “Bhais” 

follow whatever they learned from their own teachers. In some of the 

larger Gurdwaras, the “Bhais” are well-paid, have acquired wealth 

and property and, with little to do, tend to become idolent and have 

been known to interfere with the working of the religious subsystem 

in order to protect their turf. 

Over the last several years, yet another intra-community stress 

has been due to the situation in Punjab, the Sikh homeland.

309 

Sikhs are alarmed at the Indian Government’s persecution of members 

of their faith. They are concerned about the rampant human rights 

violations, torture and extrajudicial killings of the Sikhs, and about 

the very survival of their faith in the country of its origin. They would 

like the situation in Punjab to be discussed openly in the Gurdwaras 

and for the Gurdwaras in America to assist the Punjab Sikhs in their 

struggle for survival. Many, convinced that the Indian Government is 

essentially a Hindu-dominated regime bent upon homogenization of 

the country by eliminating religious minorities, advocate the creation 

of Khalistan as an independent Sikh state. This goes against the wishes 

of the larger Indo-American community which is not sensitive to Indian 

Sikh concerns and, in line with communal propaganda, believes the 

Sikh emphasis on religious identity to be separatism and a threat to 

the unity of the country. Identity with the Sikh concern for survival as 

an independent religious community and sympathy for the Sikhs in 

Punjab is in conflict with the Indo-American identity. Those who value 

their Indian identity over their religious identity oppose any discussion 

of the Punjab situation in the Gurdwaras, and insist that the Gurdwara 

is a place purely for worship with no discussion of the socio-political 

problems facing the community. 

In India, concurrently with the Government’s persecution of 

mainstream Sikhism, many cults led by individuals claiminig to be 

followers of Siri Guru Nanak Dev Ji’s divine message have emerged. 

They do not accept Siri Guru Granth Sahib as Guru and/ or do not 

accept the authority of the traditional Sikh institutions like the Akal 

Takhat or the collective Sikh leadership represented by the Shiromani 

Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee in Punjab. They do not respect and 

observe the tradition of “Khande da Pahul.” They have set up branches 

in American cities adding to the conflicts. Some groups maintain a 

facade of Sikh piety and the outward appearance of Sikhs, are active 

in the affairs of the Gurdwaras, profess allegiance to Siri Guru 

GranthSahib and even administer “Pahul”. However, they encourage 

and cultivate attachment to some individual “Sant” or “Teacher” which 

is against Sikh principles. 

C. Sikh Children. 

Sikh children are involuntary victims of stress. They are placed 

in a situation which is not of their making and which they often are 

unable to comprehend. The feeling of isolation, rejection

310 

and helplessness can play havoc with their self-esteem and personal 

well-being. 

i. Interaction with host society. 

A young Sikh child finds it extremely disconcerting that his peers 

at school find him strange and are unfriendly. Being stared at while walking 

down the street is awkward enough for anyone but specially so for a little 

child or an adolescent. Older children will often pull at the Sikh child’s 

hair or play with it. Sikh boys are often asked: “What is that on your 

head?” This stressful situation often makes the Sikh child withdrawn, 

uncommunicative, and worried. Teachers not used to having identifiable 

minority students in their classes have on occasions interpreted this as 

evidence of a learning disability, further aggravating the problem. Some 

teachers advise Sikh parents to use English at home to accelerate the 

process of acculturization even though there is ample evidence that 

bilingual students are better learners. In fact, children of immigrant parents 

are known to be able to switch accent when talking to their parents or 

grandparents. Changing schools and “getting to know” a new set of peers 

all over again is a very trying experience for Sikh children. Young Sikh 

males find it extremely troublesome to be often the only students in their 

schools with a turban. They have to face official indifference to their 

concerns, social isolation and often hostility. They are not allowed to 

participate in certain sports. The teachers often are not sympathetic to a 

religious belief different from their own. Even when they excel 

academically, the “different” children are discouraged from representing 

their school or class. Many children as well as teachers have been known 

to refer to the lone Sikh child as “that Indian boy (girl).” 

ii. Stresses at home. 

For many children the most stressful situation is their elders’ 

adherence to a “foreign” culture. Brought up in America, they do not 

have an understanding or appreciation of the culture their parents grew 

up with and are so attached to. They are culturally American, because of 

the school education and the interaction with their peers, but are racially 

Asian. The host society insists on regarding them as foreigners. They feel 

that they belong neither to America nor to their parents’ country of origin. 

They can identify with neither and feel isolated and rejected. Unable to 

escape their racial identity, many children would like to reinforce it with 

knowledge of their heritage and pride in their ancestry. However,

311 

the information they get about their religion is often contradictory. 

They wish to be able to proudly say where their parents or ancestors 

came from but there is no Sikh country anywhere in the world. Their 

“homeland” Punjab is part of India. It is difficult for them to identify 

with India as a whole and most Americans would not know where 

Punjab is. Many understand Punjabi when it is spoken at home and 

some have learnt to read it. Few know it well enough to read from Siri 

Guru Granth Sahib. Growing Sikh children are quite confused over 

the difficulty of finding marriage partners in the endogamous option 

preferred by their parents and of preserving their faith in an exogamous 

one for which greater choices might be available. 

SURVIVAL 

Typical interaction between immigrants and the host community 

consists of need-based adaptation (for example, change to the dress 

habits and learning to speak the language of the host community at 

work), adjustment involving learning a new language, form of 

entertainment and diet (for example; discarding the native language 

for the language of the host at home, interest in American sports like 

football and baseball, eating beef, etc.) and acculturization. At the 

same time, the host society needing cheap labour, accomodates 

“foreign” employees when “natives” are not available to do certain 

jobs. In such situations, as the host society gets used to the presence 

of the foreigners, it develops a certain amount of tolerance, or 

reduction of resentment, towards them. In due course, as the 

“foreigners” prove themselves to be inoffensive and useful, the host 

society comes to accept the “different” persons and ceases being 

critical, hostile or coercive. As this process continues, the immigrant 

and the host eventually may reach a state of equilibrium based on 

coexistence with a certain level of acceptable and non-threatening 

expression of identity by the minority. If the immigrant group 

progresses to economic parity with the host, this equilibrium may 

include mutual socio-cultural enrichment. On the other hand, if the 

expression of identity by the minority is viewed as threatening the 

socio-cultural fabric or the political dominance of the majority, hostility 

against the minority may result. 

In order to survive, that is, to have continued existence as a distinct 

group with an expressable identity, a minority has to create subsystems 

based on ethnicity, religion or national origin depending upon 

whichever of these is its distinguishing characteristic. For

312 

the Sikh minority, this subsystem has to provide an organizational 

structure which can provide support to its members in overcoming 

stress and ensuring acceptance by the host society without the necessity 

of assimilation or total integration. It is especially important for survival 

that the present generation be able to pass on, to the following 

generations, a pride and a sense of purpose in the maintenance of a 

visible Sikh identity. 

For the early Sikh immigrants, survival as Sikhs was extremely 

difficult. Their interaction with the “host” society followed the 

traditional model of helpless and desperate immigrants trying to adapt, 

adjust, accomodate and assimilate into the host society on the terms 

set by the latter. Driven by necessity, these people adopted the English 

language, took to western dress, and modified their diet. From the 

point of view of religious identity, the most significant act was to 

discard the external symbols of their religion to avoid hostility and 

win acceptance as employees. This was not merely a change of dress 

which would essentially be a cultural matter but deprivation of symbols 

of their faith. They were emotionally attached to Punjab, their 

homeland of which they had happier memories. Within their homes 

and in their interaction within the community, they were still Punjabis. 

They developed subsystems around Gurdwaras. However, the 

Gurdwaras, religious institutions by definition, were few and were 

primarily places of social intercourse where the immigrants could speak 

Punjabi and reminisce about their youth in the land of their origin. 

This affinity with Punjab was difficult to pass on to the next generation 

which did not share their parents’ nostalgia and had no practical use 

for the language of their elders. 

These immigrants were, in general, not well educated. Chakravorti 

reported that over 75 percent of his sample of Sikh immigrants in El 

Centro had less than a high school education. They did not know their 

own religion, did not know how to do “keertan” (congregational singing 

of verses from Siri Guru Granth Sahib) and were unable to read from 

Siri Guru Granth Sahib. Only 3 (including the “Bhai” at the Gurdwara) 

out of 22 wore the turban. Knowing very little about their religion, 

the immigrant fathers were unable to get their children interested in it. 

For these immigrants, religion, national origin, language and culture 

were inextricably mixed. Thus, weakening of the cultural subsystem 

in the next generation also implied their dwindling interest in religion. 

They were unable to create facilities for educating the

313 

children in the principles and the history of their faith. Exogamy also 

contributed to the children losing interest in the Gurdwara and the 

Sikh religion. 

Their children were generally more ‘educated than their parents 

but not well enough to move up from the lowest economic group. In 

spite of a high level of cultural assimilation, they continued, like their 

parents, to be victims of discrimination because of the color of their 

skin. Identity was a burden and not a matter of pride, particularly 

because they were identified not as visitors from another independent 

nation but fortune-seekers from a British colony. Their survival was 

essentially as part of the broader South-Asian community. Their 

background was apparent only to the other South-Asians. To the host 

community they had no separate identity. 

Starting life in America as farm labourers, many of the early Sikh 

immigrants finally became landowners and successful farmers. In 1956, 

Dalip Singh Saund became the first Asian-born person to be elected 

to the U.S. House of Representatives. Even though most of them 

were not well-read, they recognized the benefits of education. It is 

well-known that the farmers in Yuba City helped many students from 

Punjab by providing them summer employment. They contributed 

towards the education of numerous settlers of the 1960' s and after 

and indirectly helped set up strong subsystems for survival in the long 

run. 

Immigrants, coming in the 1960’s and after, were quite different 

from the early immigrants in their level of education. Many had come 

to the United States and Canada to pursue advanced study and research 

at universities and after completing their studies decided to stay on. 

Many succeeded very well in various spheres of academic and 

professional endeavor and had the will to survive as a distinct religious 

community. They could communicate effectively with each other and 

with the host community. They designed and implemented several 

survival mechanisms. One, of course, was to establish more Gurdwaras 

to serve groups of people scattered all over America. This provided 

more frequent, generally once a week, contact with the other Sikhs in 

the area. Another was to create national organizations to promote 

better communication between Gurdwaras. This would also be the 

mechanism for holding periodic Sikh Conferences bringing increased 

visibility to the Sikh identity. The U.S. based Sikh Council of North 

America (SCNA) was formed in 1978 with

314 

this objective as an association of Gurdwaras. Delegates from member 

Gurdwaras would meet annually at a Seminar and also use the occasion 

to elect new officials. The Federation of Sikh Societies was the 

Canadian counterpart of the SCNA. Mrs. Lillian Carter was the chief 

Guest at the first annual meeting of the Sikh Council held in Berkeley, 

California. The SCNA went into decline after the June 1984 invasion 

of Darbar Sahib (Golden Temple) by the Indian army. The Council 

leadership, perhaps not fully aware of the situation in Punjab, had 

honoured Mrs. Indira Gandhi, during her visit to the United States of 

America in 1982, with a “Saropa.” The Sikhs in America could not 

forget this. The World Sikh Organization (WSO) was set up in 1984. 

It had individual as well as institutional members. Individual members 

were organized into “chapters” for the purpose of sending delegates 

to the annual or special conferences. Several other groups, including 

organizations not connected with any Gurdwara, have also been set 

up from time to time to meet special needs of the community. 

Several magazines and newsletters including, among others, “The 

Sikh Sansar” published quarterly by the Sikh Foundation of USA, “The 

American Sikh Review” published by the Sikh Cultural Society of New 

York, “The Sikh Samachar” published by the Guru Nanak Foundation of 

Washington, D.C., “The Sikh World” published by the International Sikh 

Youth Foundation in Detroit, Michigan, “The Spokesman Weekly” 

published from Tornoto, Canada, “Sikh Thought” published by the Sikh 

Education and Research Centre in St. Louis, were started. Most had to 

fold up because of economic problems. Perhaps they were before their 

time. However, the World Sikh News which started publication in end of 

1984 as a publication of the World Sikh Organization continues to operate 

as a privately owned newspaper. Several periodicals in Punjabi language 

were started and some of them are flourishing. 

The most important development has been the introduction of oneweek 

or two-week “camps” for Sikh children. Starting with a single such 

camp in the United States about fifteen years ago, currently hundreds of 

Sikh children are taught Punjabi, Sikh history, Keertan, and Sikh principles 

in numerous camps that run all summer. Most camps are designed for 

children below 18 years of age. However, in 1983 to 1985, camps and 

seminars for college-age Sikhs were also held. Regional and national 

Keertan competitions are now regularly organized. Scores of “Jathas”

315 

(teams) of young Sikhs assemble at one place. The competition lasts several 

days. Sikh children are increasingly involved in doing “Keertan” in the 

Gurdwaras. There are many young Sikhs who have taken “Khande de 

Pahul”. A Khalsa school has been started in Vancouver where Sikh children 

can study free of many stresses. The Sikhs have supported the creation of 

programs of Sikh Studies at several Universities. Chairs of Sikh studies 

have already been set up at University of British Columbia and the 

University of Toronto. A Chair at university of Michigan is in the process 

of being filled. Research into Sikh concerns has attracted the interest of 

several Western scholars. Several Sikh Studies Conferences have been 

organized and supported by Sikhs. They have actively participated in 

conferences where their concerns may be discussed. Sikhs have increasingly 

participated in interfaith activities with the Guru Gobind Singh Foundation 

of Washington, D.C. taking a step in this direction. Sikh students have set 

up a worldwide computer network for communication among themselves. 

Recently, Punjabi fonts have been developed for use with various 

commercially available word processors. 

THE FUTURE 

It appears that, contrary to the outlook expressed by Chakravorti 

two decades ago, the Sikh community in the America has a reasonable 

chance of surviving as a distinct and visible religious entity instead of 

amalgamating into the larger racial group of South-Asians. There are two 

main reasons for this optimism. One is the acceptance of multiculturalism 

in America and the other is the ability of the Sikh minority to set up 

appropriate subsystems for its survival as a religious minority. Regarding a 

multicultural America, Bal notes: “Mainstream America consists of 

Americans who maintain the fundamentals of their ethnicity while making 

judicious adjustments to the environment in which they live. The 

adjustments are made in order to participate effectively and fully in the 

social, economic and political activities in America as law-abiding 

individuals with awareness of the Bill of Rights and the essentials of the 

American Constitution. In view of the present-day ethnic egalitarianism, 

supported by the laws of the land, mainstream America is defined neither 

in terms of the standards of the Anglo-saxon majority in America nor in 

terms of any other ethnic standards?” He goes on to assert: ‘To suggest a 

future of the American society when Americans will be an 

ethnically faceless people is contrary to human nature, contrary 

to the power of ethnic heritage over people and contrary to

316 

the current trends in the American society.” America of the future promises 

to be a beautiful fabric of different but complementary hues and shades. 

Considering the subsystems for survival, one has to keep in mind 

several factors that would contribute to preservation of Sikh identity. 

These include definition of identity, pride in being a Sikh, and knowledge 

and practice of the essentials of the faith without conflict with other 

beliefs and faiths. 

If Sikhism is to survive as a world religion, it must claim its distinct 

existence solely upon religious belief and religious observance. Religious 

identity has to be separated from identity of language, culture, national 

origin or race. It has to be an identity of all Sikhs including not only 

immigrants from Punjab and their children, who have a skin color different 

from that of the majority community, but also the “Gora Sikhs” (Caucasian 

Sikhs) and “Black Sikhs”, present and future. Racial identity is shared 

with other groups from South Asia and is, therefore, not uniquely Sikh. 

Also, with persons of Caucasian as well as Afro-american origin embracing 

the Sikh faith, the racial identity becomes meaningless. With the younger 

generation exposed to contact with the host community and the latter 

becoming increasingly receptive to social diversity, endogamy is going to 

be difficult, if not impossible. 

As stated earlier, the Sikh religious identity is proclaimed by the five 

K’s -the most important being “kes” (unshorn hair). 

People who want to do away with this distinction would be 

recognized only as South-Asians by the majority community and their 

recognition as believers in the principles of Sikhism would be limited to 

other people of South-Asian or specifically Indian origin. It is clear that 

they will eventually lose their religious identity and be submerged in the 

dominant religions practiced by the larger minority. In the long run, 

mainstream America will only recognize as Sikhs only those who are strict 

in their observance of the five k’s. This would, of course, include the 

American Sikh converts. 

For the Sikh immigrant, affinity for Punjabi language and culture is 

natural. However, regional language and culture is not an essential part of 

religion and is difficult to transmit to the following generations. For the younger 

generation, not so intimately acquainted with Punjab, it is a heavy burden to 

carry. Knowledge of Punjabi language is desirable for proper understanding 

of Siri Guru Granth Sahib but it should be possible to be a Sikh

317 

without having to be a linguist. 

Punjab is the historical “homeland” for the Sikh religion. Undoubtedly, 

future generations of American Sikhs will evolve an American Sikh identity 

but Punjab, because of its intimate association with Sikh history, will 

always be an emotional focus for Sikhs everwhere. As the place of the 

Gurus and the birth of the community, where the Sikhs form a majority 

of the population, whatever happens in Punjab will continue to deeply 

influence Sikhs all over the world. Events of 1984 and after have had a 

profound effect on the Sikhs in America. A strong Punjab in which 

independence of Sikh religion and culture is assured, appears necessary 

for the survival of the Sikh Faith. As stated by Khushwant Singh : “The 

only chance of survival of the Sikhs as a separate community is to create 

a State in which they form a compact group, where the teaching of 

Gurmukhi and the Sikh religion is compulsory and where there is an 

atmostphere of respect for the traditions of their forefathers. 8 ” , 

Sikh religion is not merely a set of beliefs, it is even more importantly 

a way of life, that of a “Saint-soldier.” Sikhs must live their faith in addition 

to simply being visible as different, i.e., they must live their lives in prayer 

and humble service of the people. In interacting with the host society, 

they must participate in inter-faith activities on equal terms, practise the 

Sikh concern for fellow- beings, institute free kitchens, set up hospitals, 

and provide services to the elderly, the disabled, and the homeless in line 

with the traditions of their faith. They should fight for freedom and equality 

for all people and resist oppression wherever it may exist. 

There is not only lack of information but actually a great deal of 

disinsformation regarding Sikh religion. It is up to the Sikhs to correct this 

by making correct information available. The Sikhs in America need to 

set up a central religious organisation concerned with collection and 

dissemination of information,. correction of erroneous propaganda, 

promotion of Sikh schools, education of Sikhs and about Sikhs, and with 

ensuring fair treatment for Sikhs and acceptance of their lifestyle. This 

could be an association of Gurdwaras along with appropriate arrangments 

for participation by individuals and by small communities not centered 

around a Gurdwara. 

To provide support to the younger generation of Sikhs, more 

Gurdwaras along, with Sunday schools are needed as the immediate 

support system. The present subsystem of youth camps must 

be further strengthened. The different youth camps

318 

must establish a central organization to coordinate their work including 

standardization of the texts and the curriculum. The Sikh youth trained at 

these camps must be increasingly involved in conducting the religious as 

well as socio-cultural affairs of the Gurdwaras and the community. 

Newspapers and magazines in English, dealing with Sikh history, religion, 

and socio-political issues, are needed. There is a considerable body of 

Sikh literature which is available only in Punjabi. Effective translations 

into modem English need to be given high priority. More Khalsa schools 

must be started, these being an important priority, and eventually Sikh 

colleges and universities established. Here, in addition to a liberal arts 

education, principles of Sikh faith will be taught. Such schools are presently 

viable in some areas of concentration of Sikh population. To serve a 

scattered population, residential schools ought to be set up. Parents of 

Sikh children must take greater interest in and participate more fully in 

parent-teacher associations of school parent groups. Their visibility at 

school functions and participation in school affairs will provide an increased 

measure of security to Sikh children. These are challenging tasks that 

need to be urgently addressed. 

REFERENCES 

1. V erne A. Dusenbury, Introduction to The Sikh Diaspora South Asia 

Publications, Columbia Missouri 1989. 

2. Chakravorti, Robindra Chandra, “The Sikhs of El Centro: A Study 

in Social Integration,” Ph.D. Thesis, University of Minnesota, 1968. 

3. Nasser-Bush, Merun Hussain, “Differential Adjustments Between 

Two Indian Immigrant Communities in Toronto: Sikhs and Ismailies, 

“ PhD. Thesis, University of Colorado, 1973. 

4. Columbus Dispatch, Columbus, Ohio, Vol. 108, No. 138, November 

15,1978, page 1. 

5. San Francisco Examiner, San Francisco, California, August 13, 1982. 

6. The Daily Gazette, Xenia, Ohio, Vol. 117, No. 92, March 7, 1984, 

page 1, and Day ton Daily News, March 9, 1984, page 23. 

7. A.S. Bal, A Few Comments of Ethnic Identity, Presented at the 1984 

Annual Meeting of the Sikh Council of North America. 

8. Khushwant Singh, A History of the Sikhs, 1839-1974, Indian Edition, 

Oxford University Press, 1977.

20 

IN THE COMPANY OF LIONS AND PRINCESSES: THE 

SIKH COMMUNITY IN THE CANADIAN MOSAIC. 

JIM LOTZ 

319 

First, let me thank you for welcoming me to your community. I 

am an outsider in this community so that my perspectives on Sikhism 

are those of a newcomer. Since 1960 I have been involved in all aspects 

of community development in Canada, Britain and the United States. 1 

I am not a newcomer in that field, and this paper attempts to indicate 

some of the limitations and possibilities that Sikhs, as members of a 

community, face in a rapidly changing North American society. 

Over the past year I have focussed attention in my research on 

mediating structures in community and organizational development 2 

Such bodies stand between individuals and the larger entities of society. 

“There is more to our society than just government and 

individuals. There is a range of structures in between 

that are meaningful, legitimate, efficacious, dynamic, 

and,--under the rubric of what we might call the old 

politics--generally ignored.’ 3 

Such structures offer a meeting place where past and future, theory 

and practise, insiders and outsiders, individual and community needs 

and agendas, the centre and the edges of society, top down and bottom 

up efforts in personal, organizational and community development 

can come together. 

Mediating structures have a particular significance in Canada. A 

Canadian nationalist, writing of the “Canadian Dialectic”, states: 

Canadian identity lives in a process of tension and 

argument, a conflict of opposites which often stalemate, 

often are forceq to submit to compromise, but whichso 

far in our historyu have not ended in final

320 

resolution.’. 4 

Mathews sees a tension between individualism and 

communitarianism, identifying the former with Americans and the latter 

with Canadians. He sees individualism as a threat to Canadian 

community values and institutions. In the United States, there is 

increased interest in community and commitment, as the work of 

Robert Bellah indicates. 5 In some cases this has led to the establishment 

of “lifestyle enclaves.” 6 

Bellah notes: 

“Whereas a community attempts to be an inclusiv 

whole, celebrating the interdependence of public and 

private life and of the different callings of all, lifestyle is 

fundamentally segmental and celebrates the narcissism 

of similarity. It usually explicitly involves a contrast 

with others who ‘do not share one’s lifestyle. 7 " 

My research has focused on how communities develop over 

time in ways that enable them to maintain their identity and integrity 

while adapting creatively to change beyond their boundaries. In recent 

years I have begun to look at religious communities the moral, ethical and 

spiritual basis of secular ones. 8 There is abundant evidence that only 

communities with strong, well-articulated religious and moral foundations 

can survive the tensions that beset everyone and every organization in 

times of change. 9 

And even some of these communities have been shaken to their 

roots in recent years. Hutterites in Canada, who pride themselves on their 

self-reliance and independence from the mainstream of society, invested 

heavily in the Principal Group in Alberta. This financial institution 

collapsed and investors have been reimbursed with public money. 

The concept of community, of harmonious relationships between 

men and women, of an ideal, utorcian state, has fascinated social scientists 

and activists for centuries. 10 It has surfaced recently in the Throne Speech 

of the new NOP government in Ontario. 11 

Community development, however, often arises from a crisis. In this 

century, community development began when the British colonial 

government could not find the money for a planned programme of mass 

education. Colonial government officials and local people pooled resources 

to solve their own problems in their own way. 12 This ad hocery, received the 

name of community development. Because British policy was directed

321 

towards eventual independence for its colonies, community development 

was rationalised as a prelude to the creation of new nations after the war. 

And many of these nations invoked community development as a way of 

incorporating diverse peoples within their boundaries into the state. 

India was “invented” by the British. Before they conquered the 

country, the sub-continent had an enormous range of cultures, political 

systems, and ways of life. On independence, the Indian government 

adopted the panchayat raj system of community development, with an 

indigenous official taking over the co-ordinating role of the former 

expatriate officials. 

In Canada, community development cannot be seen outside the 

changing nature of the society. In 1965, John Porter’s book The Vertical 

Mosaic punctured one of the myths about Canada. Just as in the United 

States it has been shown that many individuals and groups have not 

“melted” and submerged their identities in the melting pot of a new society, 

so Porter’s work showed that Canada was not a mosaic of separate — but 

equal— groups. Some parts of the mosaic were more equal than others: 

“Because the Canadian people are often referred to as a mosaic 

composed of different ethnic groups, the title, ‘The Vertical Mosaic’, was 

originally given to the chapter which examines the relationship between 

ethnicity and social class: As the study proceeded, however, the hierarchical 

relationship between Canada’s many cultural groups became a recurring 

theme in class and power...it became clear that the Canadians of British 

origin have retained, within the elite structure of society, the charter group 

status with which they started out...’, 13 

Porter Portrays Canada as a post-colonial society, with an elite group 

controlling access to money and power. Thus the first attempts at 

community development in Canada, which began in the 1960s, had an 

unconsciously paternalistic tinge to them. Certain ‘’backward peoples”, 

including the Indians, the poor, Blacks and other dwellers on the margins 

of society, were seen as being in need of help. The goal of community 

development efforts was to integrate these people into the mainstream of 

society. 

In the 1970s, as the middle class became more affluent and 

bureaucracies expanded, groups came into being to protect their special 

interests, to forward local agendas and to stop changes that threatened 

their communities. 

In 1977, Robert Stanfield expressed concern about this trend:

322 

“National life has become a struggle for advantage among large and 

powerful organizations--not simply trade unions and corporations. 

Organized pressure groups abound. ,, 14 

In the 1980s, as the existing system of generating jobs and wealth 

proved inadequate, increasing attention was paid to community economic 

development. 15 

As the year 2/000 (Julian calendar) approaches there is increased 

interest in spiritually-based community development, especially in Britain 

and the- United States. 

In the western world, with its emphasis on individualism and the 

tensions between individuals and communities, there is little understanding 

of how communities can relate to each other. The “Canadian dialectic” 

does not recognize the development of new communities in Canada, but 

sees individualism and communitarianism in constant tension. It does not 

recognize that, if Canada is a “community of communities” there may 

well be tensions between these communities unless government policy 

recognizes both their similarities and differences. 

Many of the problems of Canada’ s Indians stem from the fact that 

federal policy, legislation and programmes treat them as members of one 

homogenous group. The Canadian Indian is an abstraction created by a 

bureaucracy for the purposes of administration. There is no such being as 

a Canadian Indian. There are Cree, Ojibway, Kutchin, Blackfoot, Iroquois 

and many other tribes with distinct cultures. The Indians joke that it was 

as well that Christopher Columbus was not looking for Turkey, rather 

than India, for even the very name by which they are known is based on a 

mistake. 

The federal government appears intent on following the same 

bureaucratic approach to handling the “multicultural question.” 17 

Newcomers to Canada will be reduced to abstract categories. Sikhs will 

be lumped in with about 50 other groups as “East Indians.” 

Thus it becomes increasingly important for the Sikh community in 

Canada to identify the similarities its members share with other newcomers 

to Canada, and to identify what differentiates it from them, and what 

their special contribution to personal, organizational, community and 

national development has been-and can be. 

This means going beyond the cliches of racism - and a sense of injustice. 

It points up the need for a resurgence in Sikh studies

323 

--and for a fresh perspective on the history of Sikhs, in India and wherever 

they have settled. 

In the available material, Sikhs emerge as creative and innovative 

people. Hugh ]ohnston’s recent book, The Voyage of the Komagata Maru:The 

Sikh Challenge to Canada’ s Colour Bar 18 quotes Gurdit Singh, organizer of 

the voyage on its dedication page: 

“Besides, the visions of men are widened by travel and 

contacts with citizens of a free country will infuse a 

spirit of independence and foster yearnings for freedom 

in the minds of the emasculated subjects of alien rule.” 

The Komagata Maru incident took place in the spring of 1914. It is 

presented as a shameful example of Canadian racism — which it is. But it 

is also a case study of an extremely creative and innovative individual 

who was opposed by an inflexible, uncaring, uninformed government. 

That kind of conflict goes right through Canadian history / despite the lip 

service paid by government to the need for innovation and 

entrepreneurship. Today, Gurdit Singh would be seen as someone with 

the qualities to create new jobs, instead of being viewed as an intruder 

bringing in people who would disrupt the Canadian mosaic. Gurdit Singh 

ended his days in honour — and poetry — in a festival to commemorate 

the martyrs of the Komagata Maru, dying 20 days later in his 95th year. 

The first Sikhs came to Canada as a group to do the dirty, difficult 

and dangerous jobs that other Canadians scorned. In the post war years, 

Sikhs --and other immigrants --tended to arrive in Canada as individuals 

because the country lacked the skills they possessed and needed 

professionals to develop the nation. 

The military history of the Sikhs also reflects how they were used by 

others to meet imperial needs. After being defeated by the British in the 

Sikh Wars, ending in 1849, Sikhs were recruited for the army by their 

conquerors. 

A novel on the Sikh wars contains the note: 

“The British paid the Khalsa a genuine compliment by 

enlisting its veterans in dozens of infantry regiments.” 19 

Conan Doyle, in his history of the First World War writes: 

“ India poured both men and money with a lavish generosity which can 

never be forgotten in this country.” 20 The first Indians to be “seriously 

engaged” in 1914 in France were the 15th Sikhs on the night of October 

24 at Bois de Biez, near Neuve Chappelle; they suffered nearly 200 

casualties. 21 

The Menin Gate in Ypres carries the names of over 50,000

324 

soldiers who died in the Salient in Flander’s Field - and who have no 

known graves. Listed here are 400 Indian soldiers, including many Sikhs. 

Like the Sikhs, the Scots have been viewed by outsiders as great 

warriors. They too were defeated in battle by English armies --and then 

recruited to fight in foreign wars. In the 19th century the Scots were 

romantiezed. As urbanization and industrialization accelerated in Britain, 

the Scots came to be seen as the “wild other”, the opposite of social, 

civilized, orthodox, ‘’bourgeois man.” Queen Victoria had John Brown, 

her faithful Highland retainer. The habit of acquiring exotic attendants 

spread. Sir John Ross, commander of the British Forces in Canada, had a 

Sikh aide-de-camp with him when he was in Halifax in 1880. Second 

lieutenant Victor Duleep Singh,grandson of RanjitSingh, last ruler of the 

Punjab, and former owner of the Koh-i-nur diamond --was carried as a 

supernumerary with the 1st Royal Dragoons. 

In 1986, the Tate Gallery in London sponsored a film season on 

“The Cinema Image of Scotland” which dealt with the way in which the 

Scots had been presented in this medium. In the accompanying essay, 

Colin McArthur writes: 

“...the power to define identites of the people of the peripheral 

societies lies elsewhere than in their own hands... the most chilling aspect 

of this process...is the extent to which people of the periphery come to 

live with the mental universe fashioned by others and accept it as their 

‘natural’ identity:” 22 

In Hollywood’s depiction of the history of the Indian 

subcontinent, its indigenous peoples are presented as heroes, villains, or 

simpletons in movies such as Gunga Din, The Drum and The Charge of the 

light Brigade. 

In Britain, an advertisement for whisky shows a wild highlander with 

a claymore, claiming that obtaining supplies of that spirit a few hundred 

years ago would have cost you “an arm and a leg.” In such ways are old 

myths about other cultures sustained. 

McArthur starts his essay by noting that, “Sometime between 1 January 

1760 and 31 December 1830 Europe began to invent Scotland.’. 23 In 

Orientalism, Edward Said relates how the west has created an east of its 

own imagining, noting that, “ The Orient was almost a European 

invention.” 24 How often have people heard that the west is “materialistic” 

and the east, “spiritual?” 

The whole history of Sikhism refutes this false duality.

325 

In the Meaning and End of Religion, Wilfred Cantwell Smith states 

that, “The development of the Sikh community historically cannot be 

understood except in the context and behaviour of the Muslim 

community.” 25 He adds that Sikhism has gone through “a standard gradual 

process of reification... the preaching of a vision, the emergence of 

followers, the organization of a community, the positing of an intellectual 

ideal of that community, the definition of the actual pattern of its 

institutions.” 26 

No religion, no community is a static island. An are subject to internal 

pressures and tensions and others coming from beyond their boundaries. 

One problem that all communities face is that of the second 

generation. 27 Not having known the hardships and struggles of the founders 

of the community, the next generation is drawn into the wider world 

around it, lured by its attractions. Immigrants whose sense of community 

arises from spiritual concerns have particular difficulty in rebuilding it in 

individualistic, secular countries like Canada and the United States. 28 If 

they have difficulty in adapting, then they become the objects of study — 

and of government programmes set up to “help” them. In North America, 

the idea that instant solutions to complex problems, quick fixes for every 

ill, dominates government thinking. Edmund Carpenter claims that “media 

are so powerful they swallow culture.” 29 He notes that “between 1946 

and 1965, a typical research project began with a government grant and 

the assembly of an interdisciplinary team...The thought of including 

someone from the subject group itself never occurred...Every category 

came from the dominant culture.” 30 

Thus the second generation starts to live in, and relate to, a false 

mental universe created by outsiders. This misrepresentation. influences 

the attitudes and behaviour of others. The recent controversy about the 

wearing of the Kirpan in schools in Calgary is a case in point. 31 Sikhs have 

stressed that it is a religious symbol, not a weapon. Some Canadians claim 

that non-Sikhs might snatch a kirpan and use it as such --an example of 

transfering their feelings to others and blaming the victim. In Halifax, 

police carry revolvers while supervising school dances during off-duty 

hours. 32 I have yet to hear claims that someone will snatch these weapons 

and use them. 

For the second generation, and for non-Sikhs, it is vital that Sikhs 

generate authentic material on their history, their traditions,

326 

and their present way of life, and ensure that it is widely disseminated. 

There are many ways of doing this, through the mainstream media and by 

public information strategies. 

Community development in the past has been stifled by government 

involvement. Governments are only too willing to fund ventures aimed at 

solving problems. Unfortunately, this tends to compound the problems 

rather than solving them. Organizations have come apart as different 

factions vied for government largesse. Governments’ definition of problems 

often tends to be remote from the real world, and programmes often serve 

the needs of only a few community members. Government grants can 

create dependency --and be terminated in arbitrary ways. Given the shifting 

priorities of governments, grants are usually given for only short-term 

solutions. In many cases, organizations receiving government grants turn 

into bureaucracies or dissolve into anarchy. 

The increasing interest in mediating structures in community 

development reflects a search for systems that can provide security, stability 

and continuity to community members— and encourage risk-taking, 

creativity and innovation. Successful mediating structures have three 

functions. They scan and screen inside and outside the community to 

identify forces that will influence its future; manage community resources 

to secure the best returns for the least effort; and identify options for 

personal, organizational and community development. 

Successful community organizations have two characteristics — a 

sound financial basis and a focus of fidelity. In October this year I visited 

the New Creation Christian Community in Northamtonshire, England. 

This Baptist foundation has two very successful businesses that provide 

employment for community members, many of whom have been rescued 

from lives of drugs and violence. The community has a common purse 

through which all earned monies are pooled, and does not rely on 

government grants or donations from outsiders. 33 In Bradford, England, 

Sikhs have established their own credit union. 

Jean Vanier, founder of the l’ Arche community, states: 

“Our focal point of fidelity at l’ Arche is to live with 

handicapped people in the spirit of the Gospel and the 

Beatitudes. ‘To live with’ is different from ‘to do for’ ... 

It means that we create relationships of gratuity, trust and 

interdependence... “ 34

327 

Thus lasting communities retain their identity and integrity by focusing 

in wards--and outwards--and strengthening the sense of trust and 

interdependence. Their members avoid separation and assimilation. 

Living forms in the Canadian Arctic point the way to the choices 

before any community in its relationships with other communities. 

When caribou fight and tangle their antlers, they die as they struggle 

to break free of each other. This conflict results in small heaps of bones 

strewn on the tundra where animals could not disengage from each other. 

When attacked, muskoxen form a circle, horns pointing outwards. This 

deterred wolves from attacking the group. But it provided no defence 

against Peary and his Eskimos who shot these great creatures down where 

they stood. We came across their skulls in heaps in Northern Ellesmere 

Island. 

In the Canadian North and other harsh lands you find lichen in many 

shapes and colours. The lichen is a symbiosis between two separate, living 

forms --alga and fungus. One cannot live without the other, and together 

they bring colour and life to the bleakest environments. And scientists 

have not been able to determine how the two different forms create the 

symbiosis. 

Thus they present us with a mystery, rooted in reality, not a theory, 

concept, model or paradigm. And the very existence of this life form 

offers an indication of how different cultures, different peoples, different 

communities can live together in harmony, creating something unique, 

maintaining their own identities and integrities, avoiding conflict and 

confrontation and enhancing co-operation in all its man forms. 

REFERENCES 

1. Lotz, Jirn, Understanding Canada: Community and Regional Development in a New 

Nation, Toronto, NCPress, 1977; Lotz,Jim, “Community Development: A Short 

History,” Journal of Community Development, May /June, 1987, pp. 41-46. 

2. This research was supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities 

ReearchCouncil of Canada (Project #410-89-0009). 

3. Baroody, William J. Jr., Foreword in Novak, Michael(Ed.) Democracy and 

Mediating Structures, Washington, D.C, American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy 

Research, 1980. 

4. Mathews, Robin, Canadian Identity: Major Forces Shaping the Life of a People,

Ottawa, Steel Rail, 1988, p.I. 

5. Bellah, Robert et.al, Habits of the Heart: Individualism and Commitment in American Life, New 

Yark, Harper and Row, The perennnial Ubrary, 1986. 

328 

6. In Cities on /l Hill (New York, Simon and Schuster, 1987), Frances Fitzgerald 

discusses four lifestyle enclaves --the homosexual quarter in San Francisco, a 

Baptist church, a retirement community, and Rajneeshpuram. 

7. Bellah, op.cit. p. 72. 

8. In 1990' launched a newsletter, Christian Community to serve as a bridge between Christian, 

secular and other communities. 

9. Zablocki, Benjamin, The joyful Community, Baltimore, Penguin Books, 1971. 

10. Nisbet, Robert, The Social Philsophers: Community and Conflict in Western 

Thought, New York, Thomas Y. Crowell Co., 1973. 

11. “Politics is about far more than what we can all get; it is also about what we owe each 

other. Too many people have been left out and need to be included. The value of community 

and solidarity have been undermined and ignored.” Quoted in Robert Sheppard’s column, 

“A program with less than meets the ear,” Globe and Mail, Nov. 21, 1990 

12. Bradely, Kenneth, Once a District Officer, London, Macmillan, 1966. 

13. Porter, John, The Vertical Mosaic: An analysis of social class and power in Canada, 

Toronto, University of Toronto Press, p.x:ii-xiii. 

14. Quoted in Pross, A Paul, Group Politics and Public Policy, Toronto, Oxford University Press, 

1986, p.1. 

15. In 1989-90, the Economic Council of Canada issued a series of reports on 

community-based development, and provided an analysis of them in From the Bottom Up, 

a statement published in 1990. 

16. Lotz, Patricia A. New Patterns for Christian Life, MTS thesis, Atlantic School of 

Theology, 1990. 

17. See, for example, the concerns raised by Reginald Bibby, author of Mosaic Madness: The 

Poverty and Potential of Life in Canada in ‘The lonely road of individualism,”Globeand Mail, 

October 23,1990; Michael Valpy, “Making it too easy to remain diverse,”Globe and Mail, 

Oct. 25, 1990; John Dafoe, “Multiculturalism could do with another look, “Globe and 

Mail, Nov. 17, 1990; Waiter Block, “Multiculturalism at the Public Trough”, Fraser Forum, 

October, 1990, pp.26-27. 

18. Johnston, Hugh, The Voyage of the Komagata Maru: The Sikh Challenge to Canada’s Colour Bar, 

couver, University of British Columbia Press, 1989. The book is available in Panjabi (B.C. 

Bookworld, 4(3), Autumn, 1990.) 

19. Moore, William, Bayonets in the Sun, New York, St. Martin’s Press, 1978. 

20. Doyle, Arthur Conan, A History of the Great War. Vol. 1; The British Campaign in France 

and Flanders, 1914, New York, George H. Doran Co., 1916. p. 34. 

21. Ibid., p. 220-221. 

22. McArthur, The Cinema Image of Scotland, London, Tate Gallery Publications, 1986, p.6. 

23. Ibid. p.5. 

24. Said, Edward, Orientalism, New York, Vintage Books, 1979, p.1.

25. Smith, Wilfred Cantwell, The Meaning and End of Religion, San Francisco, Harper and Row, 

1978, p. 260. 

26. Ibid. 

329 

27. Murphy, Debra L., The Failure of the Antigonish Movement in Larry’s River, Nova Scotia. M.A. 

Thesis, Dalhousie University, Sept.’ 1975. The Antigonish Movement was a very successful 

adult education/ community development programme in the 1930s: See Lotz, jim and 

Michael R. Welton, “Knowledge for the People’: The Origins and Development of the 

Antigonish Movement,” in Welton, Michael R. (Ed.) Knowledge for the People, Toronto, OISE 

Press, 1987. 

28. Sandhu, Sukhdev Singh, The Second Generation: Culture and the East Indian Community in Nova 

Scotia, Halifax, international Education Centre, St. Mary’s University, Ethnic Heritage 

Series II n.d. The study was carried out in May, 1980. 

29. Carpenter, Edmund, Oh, What a Blow That Phantom Gave Me! New York, Holt, Rinehart and 

Winston, 1972, p. 191. 

30. Ibid. p. 190. 

31. This incident received extensive media coverage in Canada, being featured on CBC World 

News. Short accounts appeared in the Halifax Mail-Star of November 20 and 21, 1990. 

32. “Police still hired for dances; Halifax Mail-Star, Nov. 16, 1990. The school principal was 

quoted as saying, ‘The fact that police wear guns while staffing the teen dances is not an 

issue...” 

33. Campbell, John and Jeremy Bird, Christian Community ‘in Central England, n.p. New Creation 

Christian Community, 1989. 

34. Lotz, Pat. op. cit. p.25.

21 

THE CLOSING REMARKS ATV ANCOUVER CONFERENCE* 

By IQBAL SINCH SARA 

330 

Mr. Chairman, as this final responsibility to wind up these 

significant proceedings has been entrusted to me, I propose to be 

candid. 

Now, Mr. Chairman, I will deal with my address. 

Upon completion of the compilation of the Guru Granth, at his 

own dictation to Bhai Gurdas -sometimes said to be the “St. Paul” of 

Sikhism- the Fifth Guru, Arjan, is said to have directed that the hymns 

should afterwards be translated by learned men into Indian and foreign 

languages. To quote the Guru’s words: 

“so that they might extend over the whole 

world as oil spreads over water”. 

As can be appreciated, this scheme of things and other facts 

make Sikhism an inherently missionary religion. 

All of the learned scholars and distinguished speakers here today 

at this seminar are thus carrying out the Guru’s command, “to extend 

over the whole world, as oil spreads over water”. They have come a 

long way, across the seas, from India, U.K. and U .S.A. 

The need for such seminars, in the interests of public education 

and international peace and understanding, cannot be overemphasized. 

* International Seminar (Conference) on Sikhs, Sikhism, Culture and Religion, held at 

the University of British Columbia Campus, Old Auditorium, on December 2nd, 

1990. 

Under the auspices of : 

The Canadian Sikh Study and Teaching Society 

The Sikh Students Association of University of British Columbia 

The Sikh Association of Simon Freaer University

331 

It is a commendable effort that Canadian Sikhs especially 

appreciate and can be grateful for. You have (to the speakers) helped 

disseminate a special outlook on life that Sikhism offers. As scholars 

you are really fulfilling the Guru’s mission. At the same time one has 

to admit that in this modern age Sikhs are perhaps the worst equipped 

to spread the missionary religion their Gurus offered to humanity. 

“A religion of peasants”, did a professor say about Sikhism ? 

Well, almost a century ago an Irish Englishman found himself so 

inexorably and singularly drawn to Sikhism’s charm and simplicity that 

he ended becoming perhaps the best votary of Sikhism it ever had. As 

you know, the life long labour of love of Max Arthur Macauliffe 

consummated in his six volumes on the “Sikh Religion” that he left to 

posterity. The truth must be that no other single scholar ever since 

Macauliffe has succeeded so far in depicting Sikhism the way it indeed 

is. One of the reasons might be that most European or western writers 

and scholars, even if they were going to be objective, did not know 

the Gurmukhi language and idiom in which the Guru Granth, the 

Sikh scripture, is written. 

Let me say that the Guru Granth is no more a scripture of 

peasants and husbandmen than the Bible is of shepherds, fishermen, 

potters and carpenters’ .... 

Yet the liaison of man to God could not more exquisitely be 

expressed as in the Guru Granth, more uniquely so, I submit, because 

all of it is in verse. What is even more, the cultural aspect too is inbuilt. 

Every hymn is indexed as adaptable to a particular classical 

musical mode, of which there are over thirty sharing the scripture. 

Vivid flashes of lightning, formations of over-head migrating cranes, 

the swing of seasons, the life and embraces of spouses, as experienced 

in the land of Guru Granth, are, for instance on page 488, thus typically 

encaptured by Sheikh Farid, keeping in sight the metaphysical context: 

Katik Kunjaan, Cet dowe, Sawan bijulian; 

Sialay sohandian Pir gal bahurian; 

Calay calan-har vicaran le manoe, 

Gandhedian chhe mah, turindian hik khino. 

Only perhaps in Thomas Gray’s poem, Elegy in a Country hurchyard 

“,you might sense a parallel conjuring the picture of apparent and 

esoteric reality of things, and I quote: 

Full many a gem of purest ray serene,

332 

The dark unfathom’d caves of ocean bear, 

Full many a flow’r is born to blush unseen, 

And waste its sweetness on the desert air. 

The natural expansion of Sikhs and Sikhism in the present age is 

quite apparent. What certain native as well as foreign writers and 

scholars seem to be intolerant of is the reality of the definitive selfsufficiency 

of Sikhs and Sikhism that has been attained in the course 

of time, as indeed was inevitable. That is where the shoe pinches, so 

to say. 

With all due respect, the dialectics of such published papers as 

“From Ritual to Counter-Ritual - A rethinking of Hindu-Sikh 

Question” betray a desperate attempt to deny the process of selfsufficiency 

in Sikhism, if not also questioning its legtimacy. 

It is like berating, Why were you born at all? Why, for Pete’s sake, 

are you breathing? Wer’nt you better off dead? 

Well, learned writers and scholars anywhere are free tochoose 

research topics and themes that are most suited to their own individual 

genius. 

But imagine, if I was to be fascinated with the subject of the 

condition of my mother during her gestation or pregnancy, prior 

to her delivering, who might stand in the way of my inquiry? 

Nevertheless, it is almost impossible to imagine any religious 

system that did not draw from empirical factors. With minor 

modifications, the theological exegesis of Christianity reverberates 

spiritual foundations of Judaism. Islam borrows, consciously or subconsciously, 

from both the Judaic and Christian beliefs. Sikhism-in the 

same line-had the advantage of all of the kindred pre-existing systems. 

But to set out to lump Sikhs and Sikhism with the Hindu system, 

on the reasoning that. they emerged from a backdrop of Hinduistic 

environment, though counter-poised by Islam, and without any valid 

basis for the aberrative essay, is obviously tantamount to 

misrepresenting the reality about Sikhs and Sikhism. 

To fancy that until a Sikh wrote in 1897 a tract deflecting 

attempted Brahmanical incurisons into Sikhism, 

“The Sikhs had shown little collective interest in 

distinguishing themselves from Hindus” 

- is nothing short of belying the entire history of Sikhs and Sikhism, 

the Sikh volksgeist, and their practice and mode of life that made 

them distinguishable from the period of the Sikh Gurus, through

333 

the establishment of an independent Sikh kingdom, to the Anglo- 

Sikh wars and the resulting annexation of Punjab in A.D. 1849. 

The fact is that eye-witness Afghan historians almost 150 years 

preceding the “Ham Hindu Nahin” tract of 1897, are. on record in 

proof of the fact that Sikhs were seen as utterly different from the 

Hindu population. Just look and see what Qazi Noor Mohammed, 

the’ official camp historian of the Afghan invader Ahmad Shah Abdali, 

who invaded the Punjab for the seventh time in 1764, chronicles in 

his Persian diary known as the “Jang-Nama”. This is how Qazi Noor 

Mohammed laments: 

“Azan Hinduwan nestandeen sagan, 

. Juda-gana rah asteen bad-ragan” 

Translated from persian, it means that: 

‘:From amongst the Hindus these dogs are NOT; 

These bad-ones (contemptuously, bastards) : 

‘badragan’, have their own separate way.” 

Well, I am grateful to Qazi Noor Mohammed. At the time he 

might have been our enemy, we are called bastards. But sometimes, 

I suppose, it pays to be called bastard! 

You see, this was in 1764. I am not talking of 1897, I am talking 

of 1764. This was the crucial period of the Sikh rise as a distinct 

nation and people, practicing their own separate religion, and a foreign 

Afghan historian and observer confirms it. 

Now, if that is not sufficient to establish the separate collective 

existence or presence, in AD. 1764, of Sikhs, demolishing the wishful 

thesis “From Ritual to Counter Ritual, A Re-Thinking of the Hindu- 

Sikh Question”, Ido not know what else would be. 

It should be stated as well that the peculiar customs and practices 

of the Jats of the Punjab, including the Sikh-Jats, so-called ‘Peasants’ 

that preoccupy the questionable thesis, are accounted for by the Indo- 

Scythian ethnology of those people. Several years ago I had occasion 

to publish a paper, “Scythian Origins of the Sikh Jat”. It notes the link 

between these people and their forbears from the Central Asian steppes, 

the Scythians. 

All of which reminds me that for some 3 or 4 years now we have 

a Chair of Sikh Studies at the campus of the U.B.C. in Vancouver. 

Compared to the work, in terms of quality and character of products, 

of other similar intellectual centres, of which the Institute of 

Ukrainian Studies, at Edmonton, comes to mind, what has 

our Chair in Sikh Studies at U.B.C. done? Or proposes or

334 

intends to do? 

It was only after political roadblocks and at considerable public 

and private financial expense that a Chair in Sikh Studies at the 

University of British Columbia became possible. Is the momentum, 

of enthusiasm and expectation of literary advancement on subjects 

important to Sikhs and Sikhism going to be maintained? 

Or is “research” going to be programmed to find ways and 

means to ring the death knell of Sikhs and Sikhism? Perhaps it has not 

been there long enough. 

There is thought to be an urgent need for public accountability. 

The administration has to be vigilant. Public concerns, especially 

from Sikh groups, could perhaps best be addressed by the 

establishment of a committee composed of public members and 

university officials that could help evolve the direction and 

orientation of this Chair in Sikh Studies and its work. 

Remember, the Guru’s religion is a missionary religion.. 

Canadian Sikhs do not propose to suffer, by their own default or 

negligence, a failure of that mission. 

Before I close, I wish to acknoledge the presence of my wife 

Helga Sara, my daughter Sonia Sara, and my son Reza Har lqbal. I am 

fortunate to be able to say that all of them, my immediate family, are 

graduates of this University. 

That is all I have to say, and as a member of your community, 

and the first Asian-born to have joined the legal profession here 38 

years ago, I am honoured, and serving the community and the Guru..... 

God bless you.

22 

MISREPRESENTATION OF SIKHISM IN WESTERN 

ENCYCLOPAEDIAS 

KHARAK SINGH 

335 

1. Introduction 

1.1 The purpose of this paper is to draw the attention of the 

Sikh public in general, and scholars in particular to the treatment of 

Sikhism in encyclopaedias and books on comparative religion, 

published in the West, since the beginning of the present century. 

There is a wide diversity in the amount of space devoted to the Sikh 

religion, varying from whole chapters to complete absence in some 

texts. Treatment of Sikhism as an independent religious system is rare. 

Frequently Sikhs are described as a sect of Hindus, and Sikhism 

mentioned, in a passing reference, as an impact of Islam on Hinduism. 

As compared with other major religions of the world, like Christianity, 

Islam, Judaism, Hinduism, etc., the space provided for Sikhism, should 

be considered insignificant. 

1.2 Factual errors are common. For example, many publications 

show Guru Nanak as a disciple of Kabir. Guru Nanak’s mention of 

some Hindu gods and goddesses, has been given as his acceptance of 

these deities, although he has repeatedly asserted that they are not 

worthy of religious devotion. One author has made the frivolous 

suggestion that Guru Har Gobind (the Sixth Guru) was an employee 

of Emperor Jehangir. In some texts worship of the Hindu goddess 

Durga has been attributed to Guru Gobind Singh, although there is 

overwhelming evidence that he was an uncompromising mono-theist, 

and that he recognized no other deity except the Akal Purakh or the 

Timeless Lord. 

1.3 Other features are misinterpretation of Guru Nanak’s system 

as a syncretism of elements borrowed from Islam and Hinduism, and 

the alleged ‘pacifism’ of Guru Nanak and the ‘militancy’ 

of Guru Gobind Singh, questioning the unity of thought 

of the Ten Masters. Such views are obviously based on a very

336 

superficial study of Sikhism. 

1.4 The authors of entries on Sikhism were invariably non-Sikhs. 

It is hard to believe that no Sikh scholars were available for this purpose. 

The publishers could at least show the entries to some followers of 

the Sikh faith, who could point out the obvious mistakes. Guru Nanak 

is the only Prophet whose original writings are available. In his 

numerous compositions he has explained his religious philosophy and 

world-view unambiguously, leaving little scope for misinterpretation. 

Handicap of the Western non-Sikh scholars appears to have been that 

they did not have the time or patience to study the original literature a 

large part of which had not yet been translated into English or some 

other Western language. In a few cases their views also appear to be 

visibly influenced by their own chauvinism and bias in favour of their 

own faith, which makes it difficult for them to see merit in another 

faith. 

1.5 Misrepresentations started appearing as early as the beginning 

of the present century in the encyclopaedias. These were by and large 

ingored, and it was hoped that in subsequent publications the entries 

would be entrusted to more knowledgeable scholars. The hope has 

unfortunately not materialised, and errors continue to be repeated even 

in recent publications of the eighties. Sikhs are no more confined to a 

few districts in the Punjab. A Sikh with a beard and turban is now a 

common sight almost anywhere in the world. People are curious to 

know about their faith and culture. The information available in the 

encyclopaedias is highly misleading, and affects their image. An exercise 

has, therefore, been undertaken to examine the version of Sikhism in 

major publications. It is proposed to take up the matter with the 

Publishers with a view to helping them present a correct picture of 

the Sikh religion, its founder and its followers. This paper is a part of 

that exercise, covering relevant extracts from selected texts, with 

suitable comments. This might, as it should, stimulate interest of 

scholars in this almost completely neglected area, for the benefit of 

Sikhs in particular, and the world community in general. 

II. Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics Vol. IX & XI 

Ed. James Hastings: T. & T Clark, 38 George St. New York: Charles 

Scribers Sons, 153-157, Fifth Av. 

2.1 This is the oldest among the encyclopedias examined, and 

was published as early as 1917. There are two entries, one on Nanak 

by J.W. Youngson (Pages 181 to 184 of Vol. IX), and the other on

337 

‘Sikhs’ by H.A. Rose (Page 507 to 511 of V 01. XI). The authors draw 

heavily on Ernest Trumpp who is known more for his hostility towards 

Sikhism than his contribution as a scholar. Another source. M.A. 

Maculiffe is also mentioned, but is used selectively only where it 

endorses the biased opinion of Trumpp. For example, while following 

Trumpp,the Janamsakhis as a source of historical information about 

the life of Guru Nanak, are summarily rejected as ‘rubbish’. The 

following remarks of Macauliffe are also quoted as implicit support 

of the conclusion: “We must premise that several of the details of 

this and of all the current Janamsakhis appear to us to be simply settings 

for the verses and sayings of Guru Nanak. His followers and admirers 

found dainty word pictures in his compositions. They considered under 

what circumstances they could have been produced, and thus devised 

the framework of a biography in which to exhibit them to the populace.” 

2.2 Referring to the compositions of the Bhagats included in the 

Adi Granth, the note records: 

“It shows to what extent Nanak was indebted to his predecessors 

in the Indian field of thought within those limits of time, and how 

much their influence tended to bring about the remarkable reformation 

that took place. The reformation had begun before his day. Nanak 

was fourteen years older than Luther, and died eight years before him, 

and, when that great reformer took his stand for truth at the Diet of 

Worms, Nanak was in his humble way seeking to guide the Indian 

people to the recognition of a personal God. The Indian Reformation 

was salvation from atheism, and we may see in Nanak the highest and 

the best it reached,” 

2.3 The implication of the above is that Guru Nanak merely 

carried forward a reformation that had been set in motion by earlier 

Bhagats, and that its scope was limited to salvation from atheism as 

compared with the much broader and higher Reformation of Luther. 

Unfortunately, the author has failed to see, much less understand, the 

full content of Guru Nanak’s message and the revolution brought 

about by the religion revealed through him, as discussed in this paper. 

2.4 But, it does not appear to be the intention of the author to 

give accurate information about Guru Nanak and the Sikh religion. 

He appears to be more keen to prove the superiority of his own faith. 

He writes:

338 

“He (Nanak) fearlessly attacked idolatry, and, if he did not rise 

to a high degree of spiritual enlightenment, we can only say that 

Christian truth had not been conveyed to him.” 

and again, 

“Although it is the .fashion among the Sikhs to regard all their 

Gurus as true Guru (sat gur), yet, when pressed, they tell us that the 

true guru is God, and the true guru of the Granth Sahib is not Nanak, 

but is the supreme, the gur-dev, the incarnation of God, the sinless 

one, and it cannot fail to strike the least observant reader of the Granth 

that the only religion that can satisfy the aspirations of the Sikhs, and 

disclose the identity of the sat gur, and that claims to do so, is the 

Christian. Whether Nanak was acquainted with the Christian truth is 

a debated question, but, whether he was or not, we must allow that 

being in some degree conversant with the Mohammadan faith, he may 

have known something of the revelation of God in His Word, the 

true teacher, God-incarnate, the Lord Jesus Christ.” 

2.5 Such remarks about the Prophet of the stature of Guru 

Nanak, based on ignorance as they are, and the arrogance of the above 

claims, are certainly not in good academic taste, and are in fact 

unChristian. The suggestion that Guru Nanak did not realise the 

Christian truth, whatever that means, is meaningless. The logic behind 

the conclusion as to who is true guru, is also difficult to accept. 

2.6 There are a couple of other errors in the section relating to 

Sikhs, contributed by Young. On page 508 Gurditta is described as 

having entered the Udasi order. Gurditta was a householder. In fact he 

was a soldier, married twice and had children. Also his death was a 

sequel to a hunting accident. These two facts hardly conform to the 

cult of the Udasi sect. 

2.7 On the same page the .author records of Guru Tegh Bahadur 

saying that he was unworthy of wearing his father’s sword, he 

proclaimed his ambition to be styled Degh Bahadur, or ‘Lord of the 

Vessel’, the degh which symbolises the world.” One would like to see 

any reliable historical evidence in its support. For ‘Tegh Bahadur’ was 

the title or name given to him much earlier by his great father Guru 

Har Gobind, when he displayed extraordinary skill in wielding the 

sword in an encounter with the Mughal forces. 

2.8 Describing the Amrit ceremony, it is stated that “a Sikh who 

is regular in observing of Sikh rules of conduct, stirs with a

339 

dagger some sugar in water in an iron basin, while chanting verses 

from the Granth,” As a matter of fact, five Sikhs are required to perform 

the ceremony. No single Sikh can prepare or administer Amrit to himself 

or anyone else. 

Ill. Modern Religious Movements in India 

J.N. Farquhar: The Macmillan Company, New York, 1918 Pages 

338-343. 

3.1 This commentary is important for the purpose of this paper, 

since it is among earliest ones recorded in the beginning of this century, 

and it causes some basic misstatements about Sikhs and their faith, its 

mistakes have persisted in most of the subsequent publications also. 

The very first paragraph is as follows 

“Nanak (1469-1538), the founder of the Sikh Sect, was a disciple 

of the famous teacher Kabir. Except in two matters, his system is 

practically identical with that of many Vaishnava sects. It is theism, 

and the main teaching of the founder is highly spiritual in character. 

Yet the whole Hindu pantheon is retained. The doctrine of 

transmigration and Karma and the Indian social system remain 

unaltered.” Let us examine the above statement briefly in the following 

paragraph. 

Was Guru Nanak a disciple of Kabir ? 

3.2 The answer is an emphatic No. And no disrespect is meant to 

the great Saint who is held in highest esteem by all Sikhs. Here we are 

trying to ascertain a historical fact. As it is, Kabir and Guru Nanak 

were not contemporaries. There is no historical evidence, to suggest 

that they ever met each other, much less had they a teacher-disciple 

relationship. Kabir was a resident of Benaras, while Guru Nanak lived 

at Talwandi (now Nanakana Sahib) and Sultanpur Lodhi in the Punjab, 

until he set out on his divine mission around 1500 AD. Guru Nanak 

did visit Benaras during his sojourn to the East. Kabir had died earlier. 

None of the reliable Janamsakhis mention a meeting between the Guru 

and Kabir. During the time of Guru Arjun Dev, approximately 60 

years after the death of Guru Nanak, Bhai GurDas wrote a Var giving 

a brief biographical account of Guru Nanak. Later Bhai Mani Singh 

wrote a biography of the Guru on the behest of Sikhs who felt concerned 

over the interpolations in Janamsakhis by interested parties. Neither 

of these two writings bear any mention of any meeting between Kabir 

and Guru Nanak. In the Guru’s own writings we do not find any 

reference to a dialogue with Kabir, nor has Kabir or any of his 

successors ever made such a claim.

340 

3.3 Fundamental difference between Kabir’s system and that of 

Guru Nanak is their attitude towards women and pacificism (Ahinsa). 

Religions like Islam, Judaism and Sikhism accept total social 

responsibility, and reject celibacy and Ahinsa. Kabir, however, was a 

mesogynist, and accepted Ahinsa. This is exactly contrary to the 

fundamentals of Guru Nanak, who recommends a householder’s life 

and equality of men and women. He also accepts total social 

participation and responsibility, and clearly rejects Ahinsa. True, they 

are both mono-theists, but their over-all world-views are clearly 

contrasting. Evidently, a person rejecting Ahinsa could “never be a 

disciple of Kabir. 

3.4 The question that remains to be answered is that in spite of 

overwhelming evidence to the contrary, how did this view as to Guru 

Nanak being a disciple of Kabir gain currency? Fortunately, apart from 

the warnings of Bhai Gurdas and Bhai Mani Singh against falsification 

of the life history of Guru Nanak, the question has been examined in 

detail by M.A. Macauliffe. 1 According to him “There were three great 

schisms of the Sikh religion which led to the falsification of old, or of 

the composition of new Janamsakhis. The schismatics were known as 

the Udasis, the Minas and the Handalis. The first schism of the Sikhs 

began immediately after the demise of Guru Nanak. Some of his 

followers adopted Sri Chand, his elder son, as his successor, and 

repudiated the nomination of Guru Angad.” “The second schismatical 

body of the Sikhs were the Minas. Ram Dass, the fourth guru, had 

three sons, Prithi Chand, Mahadevand Arjun. Prithi Chand proved 

unfilial and disobedient, Mahadev became a religious enthusiast, while 

Arjun, the youngest, followed in” the steps of his father. To Arjun, 

therefore, he bequeathed the Guruship. Prithi Chand is stigmatised as 

Mina or deceitful, a name given to a robber tribe of Rajputana. Prithi 

Chand, however, warned his followers against association with the 

Sikhs of Guru Arjan.” “ The Handalis, the third schismatic sect of 

the Sikhs, were the followers of Handal, a Jat of Manjha, who had 

been converted to the Sikh religion by Guru Amar Das, the third Sikh 

Guru. Bidhi Chand, a descendant of Handal, was a Sikh priest at 

Jandiala, in the Amritsar district. He took unto himself a Mohammadan 

woman, to whom he was attached rather by ties of love than of law, 

and upon this he was abondoned by his followers” . 

3.5 “He then devised a religion of his own, and compiled a Granth 

and a Janamsakhi. In both he sought to exalt to the rank of

341 

a chief apostle his father, Handal, and degrade Guru Nanak, the 

legitimate Sikh Guru. For this purpose creative fancy was largely 

employed. “ 

The motive behind this is clear, viz., degrading Guru Nanak. 

The suggestion that Guru Nanak was a disciple of Kabir, is a part of 

the same conspiracy. 

3.6 Kabir is, and will continue to be held in a very high esteem in 

the Sikh world. The Gurus respected Kabir’s teachings, and common 

areas in their preachings are by no means inconsiderable. That is why 

Guru Arjun incorporated selected compositions of Kabir in the Adi 

Granth. Here it is necessary to add that not all works form a part of 

the Holy Book. Only such compositions as conform to the system of 

Guru Nanak’s thought, have been included. 

3.7 With regard to the Hindu Pantheon, which, in the author’s 

view, is retained by Guru Nanak, it must be understood that the deities 

of Hindu mythology are mentioned in the Guru’s compositions only 

to say that they are not worthy of religious devotion. 

3.8 Was Guru Nanak’s System Identical with Vaishnavism? 

Very often Guru Nanak’s system is confused not only with the 

Sargun system of Vaishnavas but also with that of Kabir and other 

Bhagats. Under the superficial identity, however, there is a divergence 

of a far reaching consequence, which is frequently missed. The subject 

has been examined in detail by Daljeet Singh. In the limited space 

available here the best thing will be to quote his conclusion: 

“Our discussion reveals that the so-called devotional systems 

may be divided into three clear-cut categories. To the first category 

belong Vaisnavism and Nathism where devotion is purely formal and 

confined mainly to image worship or Yogic, meditational and ascetic 

practices. The value of ritualism is recognized. In the social field, the 

caste system forms the sanctified spiritual basis of man’s social and 

moral ethics and duties; or the world is renounced and a monastic life 

of asceticism and celibacy is taken up . . . The second devotional 

system is of men like Plotinus, Sufis, Christian mystics and Sants like 

Kabir, Ravidas and Namdev. The history of this devotional system in 

India and outside shows that saints of this group, while they accept 

the principle of human equality, resort primarily to a system of faith 

and meditation for spiritual attainments. They, as stated by Niharranjan 

Ray, work just as

342 

individuals, purely for their own salvation or personal, religious and 

spiritual aims and aspirations. Their love or devotion is directed towards 

God with the goal of union with Him as an end in itself. Here in the 

words of Ray, ‘there is absolute surrender as much to the personal 

God as to the established social order.’ In this category man’s love of 

God does not move in the field of social concern, responsility or 

involvement. The methodology adopted is of meditation and 

interiority. In the third group, to use the inimitable words of Bergson, 

man’s love of God is transformed into ‘God’s love for all men’, Here 

the sole religious path, both for the seeker and the superman, is through 

deeds prompted by the love of man and God’s attributive Will. Just as 

Vaisnavism falls into the first category, Sikhism belongs to the third 

category.” 

3.9 In Vaishnavism, like other earlier Indian traditions, the world 

is considered a misery or suffering, a Mithya, and, for liberation, 

Sanyasa, asceticism, celibacy and yogic practices enjoy high spiritual 

value. The religious or spiritual aims and aspirations are personal, with 

little or no concern for society or the established social order. “In 

Sikhism or according to Guru Nanak, the world is real In fact, it is the 

abode of the True Lord, and birth as a human being is a great privelege, 

since it gives one the great opportunity of not only knowing the truth 

but also the more glorious privilege of living it; of not only 

understanding the Creative Will but also of carrying it out. For, God 

works not through miracles, but through man whose resources and 

capacity are enormous. Therefore, in Sikhism the ideal is not only to 

know the truth but to live truth. Realisation of truth is not an end in 

itself, but only means to the highest end of creative living, the latter 

alone being the correct test and index of the former. In fact such an 

effort is not optional but 

obligatory, it being the sole measure of spirituality.” 

3.10 The cults of Vaishnavism and Bhakti are much older than 

Sikhism. Guru Nanak came on the scene much later. A look at the 

history would indicate that while the Sants and the Vaishnavites 

carefully avoided involvement in the socio-political field, Guru Nanak, 

his successors and followers were repeatedly involved in defence of 

righteousness and confrontation with the forces of oppression and 

injustice. The fifth and the ninth Guru made supreme sacrifices for 

this cause. The last Guru. (Gobind Singh) sacrificed his all including 

his four sons, and inspired the entire community of his followers to 

leap into the struggle which lasted for several decades, and effectively 

ended the regular tide of 

2 3

343 

invasions from the North-West that had plagued India for over a thousand 

years. This contrast in the historical record is not merely incidental. “It 

represents the compulsive consequences of the ideologies and objectives 

of the different religious systems.” 4 

3.11 This should be enough to show that Guru Nanak’s system was 

not identical with that of Vaishnava sect or Kabir. 

3.12 Indian Social System: The author says that the Indian social system 

remains unaltered in Guru Nanak’ s system. As every one knows the 

Indian social system was, and still is based on caste system. There are four 

main castes and hundreds of subcastes in the social hierarchy. The lowest 

ones are Sudras who are untouchable. Even their shadow is enough to 

cause pollution, and they have no other rights except to perform menial 

jobs that the higher castes will not look at. Women also were given a 

lower status. Guru Nanak’s crusade against the caste system is well known. 

There are numerous verses in which he decries discrimination between 

man and man on the basis of caste. Examples are: 

“I consider all men high and I acknowledge none as low. 

One God hath fashioned all the vessels, 

One light pervades the Whole creation.” 5 

“Appreciate the light, do not ask for caste. 

There is no caste hereafter” 6 

‘’Vain chatter is the boast of caste, 

Vain chatter is the boast of fame.” 7 

“Caste Can gain nothing, 

Truth within will be tested. 88 

Ibid., Var Majh M-I; Pauri 10. 

“Of no avail is the caste by birth . . . 

A man’s caste or faith is determined 

by the works he perforrns.” 9 

“(It is said) The dhanna of Jogis is to acquire gnosis. 

The. Dharma of Brahmins is what is ordained in the Vedas. 

The dharrna of Kshatriyas is the dharma of the brave, 

And the dharrna of Sudras is to serve others. 

But a universal dharma should be one for all. 

Nanak is a slave to one who understands this secret, 

For he is the image of the God impeccable.” 10 

“There are the lowly among the low castes, 

And there are the lowliest among them. 

Nanak stands by their side. 

Why should he look to the higher castes?”

344 

Where the lowly are cared for, 

It is there that the grace of the Lord is showered.” 11 

3.13 The other major area of inequality in the Indian society was 

the status of women. Even in higher castes under certain circumstances 

‘women were treated like Sudras. Woman was considered deceitful, a 

temptress, and a hindrance to spiritual progress. Guru anak’s was the 

first great voice raised in favour of equality of sexes. Towards the end 

of a long stanza written to plead the cause of equality foromen, he 

demands: 

“How can you call her inferior, who gives birth to Kings? 12 

3.14 Guru Nanak attacked social vices like suttee (burning of 

widows), female infanticide and slavery. He opened the door of 

religious, social and material development to all human beings 

irrespective of caste, creed, sex or social status. He practised every 

word of what he preached. He chose for his companion a low caste 

Muslim (Mardana). During his travels he preferred to stay with low 

caste people over the high castes. At Kartarpur, where he settled 

eventually, he started a community kitchen where everybody ate 

together. Everybody worked and was required to do all kinds of duties. 

His successors continued and even intensified the reforms. Guru Amar 

Das never granted audience to anybody who was reluctant to eat from 

the common kitchen. He assigned responsible positions to women in 

the missionary set up organised by him. Guru Gobind Singh completely 

abolished the caste system among his devotees by making them drink 

Amrit from a common bowl at the Amrit (baptism) ceremony. He 

declared that everybody joining the order was his son. 

3.15 It should be abundantly clear from the above that in Guru 

Nanak’s system the Indian social order received his attention and he 

materially altered it. In fact what the Guru and his successors achieved, 

amounts to a complete revolution. The point has been more completely 

elaborated by Jagjit Singh in his book ‘The Sikh Revolution’ 13 

3.16 Other Comments: Comments are necessary also on a few 

other points in the author’s note. Some of these are: 

a. On pages 335-336 he writes : 

‘’This volume is called the Adi Granth or ‘Original Book’. The Tenth 

Guru added a great deal of fresh material; and the result is the Granth 

Sahib, or Noble Book of the Sikhs.” The correct position is that Guru 

Gobind Singh did not add any of his compositions to the Adi Granth. 

The hymns of his father, Guru Tegh Bahadur, were,

345 

however, incorporated in the volume compiled by the Fifth Guru. His 

own compositions, were collected much later. The Guruship was 

conferred only on the Adi Granth, which alone embodies the Canon. 

b. At the bottom of page 336 is the following remark: 

“The Khalsa became strong to resist the Mughals, but their 

organisation cut them off from their fellow- countrymen, and made 

them practically a new caste.” The Khalsa can never become a caste, 

since it is a voluntary order open to everybody. The caste, on the other 

hand is determined by birth. The Khalsa was highly respected by the 

common man because of the sacrifices made by them for the cause of 

the dharma, righteousness and the poor people. In fact Khalsa provided 

an ideal, and ordinary people, particularly among the Sikhs, aspired to 

become its members. 

IV. Hindu World: An Encyclopaedic Survey of Hinduism 

Vol. Il, pp. 396-399, 

by Benjamin Walker: George Allen & Unwin Ltd., 

RuskinHouse, Museum Street, London, 1968. 

4.1 The more important among the points in the section 

relating to Sikhs in this publication which need comments, are 

briefly reproduced below: 

4.2 Sikhs have been described as a sect of reformist Hindus 

founded by Nanak . . . who was greatly influenced by the reformer 

Kabir...who owes much to Kabir’. (Page 396 and 398). On page 121 it 

is stated: 

‘Early in life he (Guru Nanak) came under the influence of the great 

religious reformer Kabir to whom he was indebted for some of his 

later doctrines.’ 

The question of Sikhism as an independent religious system has 

been discussed in detail earlier, and needs no repetition. The mere 

fact that the Guru was born of Hindu parents and that majority of his 

initial followers were of Hindu origin, does not make his religious 

system a part of Hinduism. Similarly, the position of Guru Nanak visa-vis 

Kabir has been explained in an earlier section. The existence of 

some common areas in the religious beliefs of the two, does not make 

one indebted to or a disciple of the other. 

4.3 Guru Tegh Bahadur : The author records on page 396 : 

“It is said that during his imprisonment he (Guru Tegh Bahadur) 

was charged with looking in the direction of the Emperor’s harem, to 

which the Guru replied, ‘Emperor, I was not

346 

gazing at your queen’s apartments. I was looking in the direction of 

the Europeans who are coming from beyond the western Seas to tear 

down your purdah and destroy your empire.” 

The story is ridiculous and highly improbable, since it assumes 

(a) that the prison was located in the vicinty of Aurangzeb’s harem, 

(b) that his prisoners awaiting death sentence were free to move out 

and gaze at the Queen’s apartments, and (c) that Guru Tegh Bahadur 

who gave his life for human rights and religious freedom of his own 

people, could think of replacing the Moghals with Europeans as rulers. 

The story was obviously planted by an interested party, of the East 

India Company to justify and perpetuate its foreign rule over India. A 

parallel is found in the story invented during the Mughal rule that 

when Babur met Guru Nanak, the latter blessed him with the Indian 

Empire for seven generations. Needless to say that this and such stories 

are baseless. 

4.4 Guru Gobind Singh : The book acknowledges that “Guru 

Gobind Singh knew Sanskrit, Persian and Arabic, wrote inspiring poetry 

of great literary excellence in Punjabi, and was also the author of 

what is known as the Dasam Granth”. (p.396) 

It may be added, however, that his works written in :Punjabi, 

available to- us, are limited. Bulk of his compositions are in Braj 

Bhasha, and their literary excellence is also unquestionable. Apart from 

this the author has made some remarks about the Guru, which are 

damaging and without basis. For example, 

“He is said to have introduced into Sikhism the worship of the terrible 

goddess, Durga.” 

“There is no doubt that the violent philosophy he preached was 

far removed from the gentle philosophy of pacifism of Guru Nanak. 

Gandhi referred to him as ‘a misguided patriot’.” Bhai Vir Singh, the 

great Sikh scholar, published a book ‘Devi Pujan Partal 14 in Punjabi, in 

which he has examined the alleged worship of the goddess Durga by 

Guru Gobind Singh. He has concluded that the story is a pure 

fabrication. The Guru was at Paonta Sahib during the period when 

the Horn to please the goddess is alleged to have been performed. In 

all his known authentic works, the Guru praises only One Supreme 

Lord, the Akal Purakh. He accepts no other deity including gods, 

goddesses or even the Avtaars. The same injunction was issued to the 

Khalsa at the time of Amrit, and has been handed down by tradition to 

the present day. He taught his disciples not to depend upon gods or 

goddesses, but be self-reliant. They must wage the fight against evil forces

347 

themselves taking the sword in hand and lay down their lives in the 

battle field, if necessary. If still the story of the worship of the goddess 

has persisted, it is because it has been planted in a most subtle manner 

by Brahmins, the challenge to whose authority started with Guru 

Nanak, and reached a climax, when Guru Gobind Singh opened the 

doors of the Khalsa Order to one and all who believed in One Akal 

Purakh and were prepared to fight for the cause of dharma or 

righteousness. 

4.5 The alleged discrepancy between the philosophies of Guru 

Gobind Singh and Guru Nanak results from a superficial look and a 

lack of understanding in depth. In fact it does not exist. Guru Nanak 

never preached a philosophy of pacificism. Realising that the root 

cause of people’s misery was their spiritual degeneration, he emphasized 

the need for their spiritual uplift. But he did not neglect the worldly 

aspect of life. He exhorted the people to uphold their honour and self 

respect and fight the tyrant. He says: 

“Should one’s honour be violated, while living, 

all one eats is undeserved,” 15 

Again 

“To what avail are worship without honour, 

Sanyam without truth, and the sacred thread 

Devoid of moral restraint?” 16 

He founded a society that would face aggression like heroes. His 

challenge was: 

“If you want to play the game of love, 

come to my path, holding your head on your palm.” 17 

Again, he calls God ‘Destroyer of the evil’, ‘Annihilator of the devilish’, 

and 

‘1f God wills, He brandishes the sword 

to cut the head of the enemy.” 18 

4.6- When Babur invadea India, and his troops plundered cities 

and temples and murdered countless innocent men, women and 

children, Guru Nanak could not remain quiet and content with his 

rosary. His famous composition ‘Babur Vani, 19 expresses his deep 

anguish over the atrocities committed by the ‘Horde of Sin’, as he 

calls the army of Babur. He not only condemned the aggressor, he 

also took to task the local rulers for their, unpreparedness and failure 

to protect their subjects. “If a powerful lion attacks a herd of cattle, 

the master is squarely responsible.” he said. He

348 

shared the intensity of his feelings with God thus: “O Lord, did you not 

experience any pain over the suffering of such magnitude?” 

In the light of the above views who would say that Guru Nanak 

preached a philosophy of pacifism? 

4.7 The fifth Gum, Guru Arjun Dev, affirms Guru Nanak’s 

philosophy. In the same vein this apostle of peace says: 

“First accept death, forget the desire to live, 

and then with humility come to me.” 20 

Guru Gobind Singh’s philosophy was no different. He declares, 

‘When all other means fail, it is justified to take the sword in hand in the 

cause of righteousness.” 21 Thus, when Guru Gobind 

Singh launched the Khalsa Order, he simply carried out something that 

was envisaged in Guru Nanak’ s plans. In the word of Dr Gokal Chand 

Narang ‘the steel required for the sword of Guru Gobind Singh was 

provided by Guru Nanak.” 22 The complete unity, consistency and 

continuity of the message of all the Ten Gurus including Guru Nanak 

Dev and Guru Gobind Singh, are expressed in the Guru Granth Sahib: 

“Ika bani Ik Gur Iko sabad veechar” 23 (Trans: The Revelation is one, the 

Guru is one, the interpretation or contemplation of the Word is also the 

same.) 

4.8 Reference to Guru Gobind Singh as a ‘misguided patriot’ could 

only result from a lack of study of the Guru’s life and philosophy and 

from ignorance of political, social and religious conditions of his times. In 

Bachittar Natak the Guru has stated the purpose of his birth very clearly. 

It was to propagate dharma, protection of the saints and to end oppression 

and tyranny, both political and religious. He had come to guide humanity 

out of superstition, political subjugation and misery. His was a divine 

mission. Who could misguide him? He had studied the history of previous 

centuries during which all non-violent means had been tried without 

success. He realised what should be obvious to any impartial student of 

Indian history, that adherence to ahimsa in all situations, had done 

incalculable harm to the society, and was responsible for its misery. He 

reached the most carefully considered conclusion that “for a righteous 

cause, when all other means fail, it is justified to take to arms.” 24 That is 

what he did. He inspired the people to fight for their honour and freedom. 

He organised them and trained them. He taught them to make sacrifices 

for a noble cause and to overcome the fear of death with his personal 

example. The humble people, who had been treated worse than animals, 

saw in him their saviour, and responded to

349 

his call. Under his guidance and inspiration, the people shed the fear of 

the mighty Moghal Empire, and after a prolonged struggle succeeded in 

bringing about its downfall, and establishing their own government. It 

was due to Guru Gobind Singh that freedom dawned in the country after 

centuries of slavery. How could Guru Gobind Singh be called an innovator, 

when five out of the Ten Gurus maintained an army and wielded the 

sword, and when the Fifth of them had created a ‘state within a state’, 

and, apart from organising the wherewithal for militarisation, had left 

instructions for his young son, Guru Hargobind, to raise an army. The 

subsequent Gurus including Guru Gobind Singh only continued the 

tradition. 

4.9 For Mahatma Gandhi Ahimsa or non-violence was a creed and a 

cure for all ills. Let us take one incident out of Indian history, reported by 

the official reporter of Mahmud Ghaznavi who invaded India several 

times during the eleventh cen1ury. He records that when Mahmud’s troops 

were plundering the famous Hindu Temple of Somnath and breaking the 

images of the deities, people from the neighbouring 300 villages collected 

and sat chanting Mantras. Not one of them resisted or raised a little finger 

to stop the soldiers from desecrating the Temple. Probably they had 

received the traditional pacificist ‘guidance’ from some Mahatma. Anybody 

who would fight or ask others to fight, would be dubbed as ‘misguided’. 

Ahimsa or pacificism has its votaries, but the Sikh Gurus are not among 

them. It is both self-righteous’ and narrow for Toynbee to measure Prophet 

Mohammad by the pacificist standards of his own religion and criticize 

him severely. It is equally myopic for pacificist Gandhi to see Guru Gobind 

Singh through the lens of his own prejudices, especially, when it is well 

known that he gave up pacificism, when it suited his interests. In Sikhism 

the ideal is a ‘Saint Soldier’ (Sant Sipahi) or Gurmukh, and not a pacificist 

recluse who is considered escapist. 

4.10 Ranjit Singh : It has been stated that when Maharaja Ranjit Singh 

died, four of his wives and seven slave women were burnt with him in 

accordance with the Hindu practice of suttee”. While this may be a historical 

fact, it needs to be pointed out that the practice was strongly condemned 

by the Gurus. The Sikh religion does not approve of it. The Maharaja had 

died. He cannot be held responsible for the act of suttee. The fact is that it 

was his Hindu wives who did the suttee according to their own beliefs. 

4.11 Guru Granth Sahib: The remarks regarding the Granth

350 

Sahib include the following: 

‘The Granth does not quite escape polytheism, as it practically assumes 

the Hindu pantheon, and it accepts the doctrine of Karma and 

transmigration.” 

“In the course of time the Granth suffered many doctrinal 

modifications and has yielded much to Hinduism. The teachings of Gutu 

Gobind Singh were again of a different character, being militant, in 

accordance with the needs of the age in which he lived.” 

The above observations show complete ignorance of Guru Granth 

Sahib and Sikh history. No doubt, the Sikhs accept the doctrine of Karma 

and transmigration. However, Sikhs believe strictly in One God, and Guru 

Granth Sahib clearly rejects polytheism. The Guru Granth starts with the 

Mul Mantra beginning with Ik Onkar, which means that there is only One 

God who is immanent. According to the Sikh Gurus, God is a Being to be 

approached and loved, as a fond and faithful wife loves her spouse. Guru 

Nanak calls Him Nirankar, that is, without form. Bhai Gurdas spoke of 

Him as formless, without equal, wonderful and not perceptible by the 

senses. At the same time all the Gurus be1ieved that He is immanent in 

His creation. In fact, the Guru emphasizes that “God is One, brother, He 

is One Alone.” 25 

4.12 There has not been even the slightest change, doctrinal or 

otherwise, in the text of the Granth Sahib. In fact, any attempt to make a 

change would be regarded as heresy. The authenticity of the present Bir 

of the Granth Sahib, was earlier established by Bhai Jodh Singh, 26 and has 

recently been confirmed by Daljeet Singh. 27 The bani of Guru Gobind 

Singh was never incorporated in the Adi Granth, which alone is the scripture 

and the Guru or the Sole Guide. So the question of modifications on this 

account does not arise. With regard to militancy of Guru Gobind Singh, it 

has been shown earlier, that this was no innovation of the Guru. Four 

earlier Gurus had maintained an army, and Guru Nanak had himself 

rejected Ahimsa as a creed. 

4.13 Other Remarks: Some of the other remarks in this entry that 

deserve attention, are reproduced below: 

“Critics have frequently pointed out that while Sikhism ostensibly dropped 

many features of Hinduism, it has itself adopted similar features in a 

disguised form.” 

“Nanak is regarded as an incarnation of God. It is believed that 

Nanak performed miracles. The other Gurus are regarded as incarnations 

of Nanak, assuming his divinity upon their formal

351 

installation.” 

“Sikhism set its face against ceremonial and meaningless 

repetition of the name of God, although Sikhs now lay great emphasis 

on the Name.” 

4.14 Sikhs do not believe in the theory of Avtaarhood or Incarnation. 

Guru Nanak declared in the Mul Mantra that God is Ajuni, i.e., He never 

takes birth. The so-called avtaars or prophets are His creation. “Cursed be 

the tongue that says ‘God incarnates’.” 28 records the Guru Granth. Guru 

Nanak never claimed that he was God incarnate, nor did any of his 

successor do so. They considered themselves His servants. Guru Gobind 

Singh warns: 

“He who calls me God, shall fall into the fire pit of hell. I am the servant 

of the Supreme Lord, come to see the wonderful Drama of this world.” 29 

After having baptised the Five Piyaras, he, in all humility, requested 

them to baptise himself. No knowledgeable Sikh has ever claimed that 

the Gurus were incarnations of God. They are given profound reverence 

for the Lord’s Word delivered through them. 

4.15 Neither Guru Nanak, nor any other Guru ever claimed any 

miracles, and there is no mention of these in the Adi Granth. Bhai Gurdas 

has quoted Guru Nanak as saying, “Apart from the Word of the Lord and 

the holy congregation, there is no other miracle. 30 The stories invented by 

some ignorant or interested people, should not be confused with the spirit 

of Sikhism or the Gurus’ teachings. 

4.16 The doctrine of Naam in Sikhism is not mere repetition of a 

name. In fact, the Guru Granth clearly says “Everyone repeats God’s 

name. But such repetition is not the way to God.” 31 “With guile in the 

heart he practices guile, but mutters God’s name. He is pounding husk, 

and is in darkness and pain.” 32 “One mutters God’s name, but practices 

evil daily. In this way heart is not purified.” 33 Naam is realisation of the 

immanence of God in everything, and expresses itself as love and service 

of humanity, following the examples of the Gurus themselves. For, the 

Guru Granth says that it is by’” one’s deeds that man is assessed in His 

Court, and ‘’by our deeds alone we are near or away from God.” 

V Asian Religions: Geoffeey Parrinder; Sheldon Press, London (1977) 

5.1 The author has made the following observations : 

‘Nanak did not intend at first to found a sect, but disciples

352 

were attracted by his teaching. The word Sikh means’ disciple’. He declared 

‘There is no Hindu and no Muslim’. This bold utterance and his songs, 

attracted considerable attentiont. He passed his life partly in teaching and 

partly in retirement. 

“As a poet Nanak differs from Kabir, but as a social and religious 

reformer, he did much to bring Hindus and Muslims together. He strongly 

opposed formalism in worship, and inculcated devotion to one God.” 

“Persecution under the Mughals caused the Sikhs to take up arms, 

and henceforth they have regarded themselves as a military brotherhood, 

more akin to missionary Islam, usually distasteful to Hindus. Distinctive 

features were adopted for Sikhs which have remained as their badge: the 

hair must not be cut, a steel comb, a bangle must be worn, together with 

shorts and a sword.” 

5.2 There is one factual error in the above statements. A’steel’ comb 

is mentioned in the five distinctive features for Sikhs. While a comb is one 

of the five K’s, it need not be of steel. More often and almost always the 

comb worn by Sikhs is wooden. It is believed that the combs adopted by 

the Five Piyaras, when they were initiated by Guru Gobind Singh, were 

wooden. There could, however, he no objection against a steel comb 

either. 

5.3 The other mistaken suggestion is : “Persecution under the Mughals 

caused the Sikhs to take up arms.” There is no doubt that the Sikhs resisted 

persecution. But it was not merely a reaction to circumstance. It was in 

accordance with the doctrines laid down by the founder of the Sikh faith, 

Guru Nanak, who had enjoined upon his followers to resist oppression 

and injustice not only on themselves but even on others who were weak 

and poor. Guru protested strongly against tyranny of the invaders and 

oppression of the local rulers. The Guru preached a whole life philosophy 

that involved defence of self and society and full development of the 

individual and the society, socially, spiritually and economically. His 

successor, Guru Angad did not neglect any of these aspects. He took 

concrete steps to develop the physical fitness and fighting qualities of his 

disciples. There is a ‘gurdwara’ at Khadur Sahib, called ‘Mal Akhara’ 

(literally Wrestlers’ Ring) at the spot where he used personally to supervise 

wrestling and other physical fitness activities of his disciples. Diet in the Langar 

or the common kitchen received personal attention of the Guru’s wife, Mata 

Khivi ji. This was continued during the Third and,the Fourth Gurus. The 

Fifth Guru, Arjun De” ji gave special military training to his son, Har

353 

Gobind, who became the Sixth Guru after the martyrdom of Guru Arjun 

Dev while in Mughal captivity. Guru Hargovind formally donned two 

swords, one the insignia of miri (empirical life), and the other of piri 

(spiritual life). Following instructions of his father, he organised a regular 

army, and actually fought and won several battles with the local Moghal 

Chiefs or Rulers. The two swords meant that the miri aspect which had 

always been there, became more visible than it had been earlier, because 

of the increased numerical strength and better organisation of the Sikhs. 

The two swords also demonstrated that the piri aspect was equally 

important, and that it was not neglected or discarded, as some critics 

would have us believe. In Sikhism the strength for physical resistance to 

evil or oppression and injustice, derives from spiritual development. So 

emphasis on spiritual aspect continued undiminished. There was no 

doctrinal change involved in wearing two swords by Guru Hargobind. It 

is very important to understand that in Sikhism the insignia for piri 

(spirituality) is also a sword, and not a rosary, showing the basic 

combination of the spiritual with the empirical in Guru Nanak’s system. 

5.4 Another statement that needs to be contradicted is that “He 

(Guru Nanak) passed his life partly in teaching and partly in retirement.” 

This indirectly suggests that the Guru became a recluse and gave up interest 

in life and the world. This is absolutely incorrect. He never retired, but 

actively carried on his mission upto the last day of his life. He made sure 

that the mission continued even after his death, by appointing a worthy 

successor like Guru Angad Dev, who was selected after a very rigorous 

test. 

5.5 It is incorrect that Guru Nanak at first did not intend to found a 

society, or that he passed his time partly in retirement, or that it became a 

military brotherhood because of Moghal persecution. Guru Nanak’s system 

is based on a whole-life philosophy, involving full development of the 

individual and society, in their spiritual, social and economic aspects. Since 

his religion accepts combination of the spiritual and empirical aspects of 

life, or the miri-piri doctrine, he organised a fraternal society, recommending 

total participation and responsibility in all walks of life and making reaction 

against injustice an essential duty of the religious man. It was in this 

context that militarisation of the society took place, since Sikhism permits 

the use of force as a last resort for a righteous cause. The Indian society 

suffered from two major maladies, viz., caste discrimination in the social 

field and injustice

354 

and oppression in the political field. The Sikh society created institutions 

and succeeded to a large extent in solving both of these problems. He 

founded a classless community of his followers, in which everybody 

like himself, worked, and ate together from a common kitchen, in a 

‘pangat’, regardless of caste or origin. His concept of equality between 

man and woman was revolutionary. Most Indian traditions regarded 

her as a ‘temptress’, a ‘nagini’, a gateway to hell’, ‘polluted’ and unworthy 

of spiritual pursuits. Elaborating the crucial role of woman in society 

and in life, Guru Nanak asked, “How can you call one, who gives 

birth to kings, inferior?” Guru Nanak’s concept of perfect equality, 

arises from the immanence of God in all creatures., and His Love. His 

love and concern for the common man expressed itself in protests 

against exploitation of the poor and the weak. He condemned the 

brutalities and barbarities perpetrated by the invaders, whom he 

described as ‘horde of sin’. He took to task the local rulers for their 

unpreparedness to face the invading armies, and called them ‘maneating 

beasts’, and their officials as ‘hounds’ for their exploitation of 

the poor, innocent and helpless subjects. He attacked the hypocrisy 

of the religious leaders, who had become a party to the plunder and 

the exploitation. He criticised the yogis and the ascetics, for their 

parasitism and escapism. He raised a strong voice against oppression 

and injustice, and exhorted the people to resist these, In fact, he founded 

a society to resist evil in society and to fight injustice. Thus was laid 

the foundation of the doctrine of miri-piri, which became a fundamental 

element in the Sikh philosophy. 

VI. “Dictionary of Comparative Religion” : 

Ed. S.G.F. Brandon; Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York. 1970 

(Ninian Smart) 

6.1 An extract from the entry on Sikhism is reproduced below: 

“Sikhism: The Sikhs (literally ‘Disciples’), though belonging orig. to a 

movement designed to see unity between best in Islam and best in 

Hinduism have evolved a distinctive relig. and culture of their own. . 

. , . . The tendencies towards unified devotionalism were crystallised 

in the life and teachings of Nanak, first of the ten Gurus or leader of 

Sikh community. He preached unity of God. . . . . centrality of devotion 

(Bhakti), summed up in the repetition of divine name, 

equality of men of different castes, evils of image worship, 

importance of brotherly love and need of a guru as a guide. 

None of these elements was precisely orig. to Nanak.” (page

355 

576). 

6.2 The above interpretation of Sikhism as a blend or amalgam of 

selected features drawn from Hinduism and Islam, denying any originality 

to Guru Nanak, has been repeatedly advanced by some Western scholars. 

This notion of syncretism, is obviously based on a superficial study of 

Sikhism or the doctrines of Guru Nanak. No religion has survived on 

borrowed ideas in history. Din-i-Ilahi of Akbar is a well known example. 

Sikhism is a revealed religion based oh the mystic experience of its founder, 

Guru Nanak, of the Reality or God. He saw God as’ All Love, the rest He 

is ineffable,. 34 He saw God as ‘Creator who is immanent in His creation, 

loves it and looks after it’. He saw God as Ocean of Virtutes. He saw 

God as Self-existent and as One who never takes birth. The roots of 

Guru Nanak’s religious life lie in his unique experience of Love of God. 

Guru Nanak’s Bhakti is not mere repetition of a name. His bhakti is an 

intense love of God and His creation which expresses itself in the service 

of mankind, and carrying out His altruistic Will. In fact the goal in Sikhism 

is to recognise and carry out the altruistic Will of God. Most religions are 

a search for Truth. Guru Nanak went a step further. He said: ‘Truth is 

higher than everything; Higher still is True Living.’ 35 Virtuous deeds based 

on morality and ethics form the crux of Guru Nanak’s system. ‘It is one’s 

deeds that determine one’s closeness to God.’ 36 He believed the world to 

be real, as God’s creation, and decried its rejection as Mithya. He rejected 

monasticism and ascetic ways of life, and insisted upon a householder’s 

life, accepting all domestic and social responsibilities, as a part of ‘ the 

practice of religion. He said: “He alone recognises the way to God, who 

earns an honest living and shares it with others in need”. 37 His notion of 

equality crossed all previous boundaries, and assumed dimensions which 

can never be surpassed. He not only condemned the thousands year of 

old caste system, but took practical steps to abolish it. His companion 

during his famous world trips was a low-caste Muslim, Mardana. At 

Kartarpur he continued his mission, created a society in which everybody 

worked and ate together from a common kitchen or langar. 

6.3 Evidently Guru Nanak gave a completely new system of religious 

thought based upon his own mystic experience. Its concept of the Ultimate 

Reality, nature of the Reality, its goals, the methods prescribed to achieve 

the goal, its world-view and approach to life, its emphasis on moral and 

ethical deeds, its

356 

activism, its acceptance of social responsibility, all point towards its 

uniqueness and independent status as a religion. It is failure to grasp 

these elements that has led to suggestions of syncretism in the 

interpretation of Sikhism. There are scores of hymns in the Granth 

Sahib, ‘in which Guru Nanak criticises the old traditions. How could 

he borrow anything from those traditions? Of course, whatever was 

true in the old religions, and synchronized with his own spiritual 

experience, was included in the Guru’s system, since, as the Third 

Nanak says, “Truth never becomes obsolete 38 .” 

6.4 Common areas are bound to exist amongst all religions; 

particularly monotheistic religions. Sikhism is no exception. A few 

common features with Hinduism or Islam, do not justify a syncretic 

interpretation. In fact there are more common features between Judaism 

and Christianity, than between any other two religions. Hence the 

suggestion is irrelevant, and indicates the Christian missionary’s zeal, 

rather than a factual reality. 

VII. The encyclopaedia americana international edition volume 24 

American Corporation. International Headquarters 575 Lexington 

Avenue, New York. copyright Philipines.1977 

7.1 The entry includes the following observations: 

“Sikhs, seks, are followers of the Sikh religion, particularly of Guru 

Gobind Singh, and, by extension, a communal group of East Punjab, 

India. . . . . . The religion combines elements of Islam and Hinduism.” 

. 

“When Nanak began teaching in 1499, there was almost complete 

lawlessness under the weak Lodi dynasty and the government was 

taking active measures to repress Hinduism. Nanak’s doctrines in large 

part were a response to these chaotic conditions. The core of his belief 

was Hindu but he was undoubtedly greatly influenced by Islam.” 

(Page 808) 

7.2 The above views do not show any serious study or knowledge 

of Sikhism and are apparently based on the ‘syncretic’ interpretation 

of Sikhism, which has been adopted by some Western writers without 

carefully studying the origin and the doctrines of Sikhism or the 

teachings of its founder, Guru Nanak. This view has been repudiated 

and correct position explained in an earlier section. The conclusion 

may, however, be repeated that Sikhism is a revealed religion based 

on the mystic experience of Guru Nanak with the Ultimate Reality or 

God who is the Creator of the universe. God is ineffable, but He is All 

Love. He is immanent

357 

in His creation, loves it and looks after it. A Sikh must express his 

love for God through service of mankind. He should, therefore, stay 

in the world and discharge all his domestic and social responsibilies. 

He should not reject the world as ‘mithya’ or unreal. He should not 

take to monasticism or asceticism, which, in the Guru’s opinion, are 

tantamount to parasitism and escapism. The goal of a Sikh is to carry 

out the altruistic Will of God, which inevitably involves resistance to 

oppression and injustice. The Guru’s doctrines have an eternal 

relevance, and it is wrong to call them a response to one particular 

situation that prevailed under Lodi rule during the times of Guru 

Nanak. In fact, Guru Nanak’s system is a whole-life or miri-piri system 

that in its essentials, is opposed to the earlier Indian systems that are 

dichotomous, suggesting withdrawal from empirical life and its 

responsibilities. 

VIILConclusion 

8.1 It should be clear from the preceding examples that many 

encylopaedias published in the West, contain serious errors of fact as 

well as understanding of Sikh religion. The list given in this paper is 

by no means exhaustive. It is only a sample. However, it should not be 

difficult to imagine the damage done to the cause of Sikhism and the 

image of its followers, by such wrong views being propagated in the 

numerous encyclopaedias and other such publications in circulation. 

It is necessary, therefore, as indicated in the beginning of this paper to 

examine all the entries on Sikhism, contradict misrepresentations and 

take up the matter with the publishers, and editors concerned, to ensure 

necessary corrections in future editions. The present alarming situation 

demands strict vigilance on the part of scholars in particular, and 

followers of Sikhism in general. A periodical giving abstracts of all 

new publications on Sikh religion, history and culture, and highlighting 

controversial views, would be justified. (Since then the Institute of 

Sikh Studies, Chandigarh has started a half yearly periodical called, 

Abstracts of Sikh Studies). 

REFERENCES 

1. Macauliffe, M.A. : “The Sik.’ Religion”, Vol. I, Introduction; S. Chand & Co. 

New Delhi; 1963 Edition, p.LXXIX. 

2. DaljeetSingh: “The Sikh Ideology”; Guru Nanak Foundation, New Delhi, 1984, 

pp-126-128.

3. Ibid., 128-129. 

4. Ibid.,128 

5. Guru Granth : Sri Rag M-I, Astpadi 6.4. 

6. Ibid., M-I; Asa 1.3. 

7. Ibid., Var Sri Rag M-I; Sloka 1, Pauri 3. 

8. Ibid., Var Majh M-I; Pauri 10. 

9. Ibid., Rag Parbhati 4.10. 

10. Ibid., Sloka Sahaskirti 4. 

11. Ibid., Sri Rag; Page 15. 

12. Ibid., Var Asa; page 473. 

13. Jagjit Singh: “The Sikh Revolution”, New Delhi, 1984. 

14. Bhai Vir Singh: “Devi Pujan Partal” (Punjabi); Khalsa Samachar, Amritsar. 

15. Guru Granth: Var Majh, M-I; page 142. 

16. Ibid., Ramkali M-I; page 903. 

17. Ibid., Sloka 1; page 1412. 

18. Ibid., M-I, page 145 

19. Ibid., Tilang M-I; page 722. 

20. Ibid., Var Maru, M-5, page 1102. 

21. Guru Gobind Singh : “Zafarnama”, 

22. Gokal Chand Narang : “Transformation of Sikhism”. 

23. Guru Granth : Var Sorath; M-4; page 646. 

24. Guru Gobind Singh : “Zafarnama”. 

25. Guru Granth: Asa, M-I; page 350. 

26. Jodh Singh : “Kartarpuri Bir de Darshan” (punjabi); Punjabi Univ. Patiala; 1968 

Edition. 

27. Daljeet Singh: “Authenticity of Kartarpuri Bir”; Punjabi Univ. Patiala; 1987. 

28. Guru Granth : Bhairon M-5, Page 1136 

29. Guru Gobind Singh : “Bachittar Natak”. 

30. Bhai Gurdas: “Varan”; Var 1.42. 

31. Guru Granth : page 491. 

32. Ibid., page 1199 

33. Ibid., page 732 

34. Ibid., Asa, M-5; Page 459 

35. Ibid., Sri Rag M-I; page 62 

36. Ibid., Japu ji; page 8. 

37. Ibid., Var Sarang M-4; page 1245. 

38. Ibid., Var Ramkali; page 946. 

358

23 

NEED FOR WORLD INSTITUTE OF SIKHISM 

KHARAK SINGH 

359 

I GURU NANAK’S REUGION 

1.1 Sikhism, a revealed religion, is the latest among the major 

world faiths. This system, as preached by Guru Nanak, has a universal 

appeal and an eternal relevance. Some of its essential features may be 

briefly reproduced below: 

a. Monotheism: Guru Nanak believed in only One God as the 

ultimate Reality. In the Mul Mantra he described Him thus; 

‘The Sole Supreme Being; of eternal manifestation; Creator; 

Immanent Reality; Without Fear; Without Rancour; Timeless 

Being; Unincarnated; Self-Existent: 

b. b.Reality of the World: Guru Nanak rejected the earlier view of 

the world being mithya or unreal or a place of suffering, and 

human life a punishment. Since God is Real, he argued, so is 

His creation - ‘the continents, the universes, the worlds and 

the forms. . : ‘In the midst of air, water, fire and the nether 

regions, the world has been installed as Dharamsal or a place 

for righteous actions: ‘This world is the abode of the Lord 

who resides in it: ‘Human life is a rare opportunity for spiritual 

fulfilment: 

c. Goal of Life: In Sikhism the goal is not moksha, Nirvan or 

personal salvation after death. It is the status of gurmukh or 

sachiara or a Godman to be attained in life itself. A gurmukh is 

attuned to the Will of God, and engages himself in carrying 

out the Divine Will., There is no selfishness in his goal. He 

wants to liberate not only himself but the whole world. 

d. The Methodology: Guru Nanak did not accept the dichotomy 

between empirical and spiritual lives preached by earlier 

systems. Asceticism which was considered essential for spiritual 

attainments, was described by the Guru as escapism and 

parasitism. He advocated a householder’s life, with

360 

emphasis on hard work, honest means for a livelihood, and 

sharing of earnings with others in need. God loves His creation, 

and takes pleasure in looking after it. In fact He is immanent 

in it. So the Godman must also love his fellow beings and 

carry out the Divine Will through altruistic deeds. Only thus 

can one find the path to Him. Full social participation, and 

struggle against oppression, injustice and tyranny in the cause 

of the poor and the weak, are an essential part of the Guru’s 

system. While the need for worldly pursuits is recognised, there 

is a very clear warning against acquisitiveness, accumulation 

of wealth and indulgence or what is called consumerism. 

Ritualism is condemned. Instead the emphasis is on Naam, 

i.e., remembering God or keeping Him in mind or being 

conscious of Him always. This means a realization of His 

immanence in the entire creation, or living in His presence all 

the time. All this comes under sach achar or truthful living which, 

the Guru says, is even higher than truth. Sikhism is, therefore, 

a system of noble deeds and moral conduct. It is the deeds 

that determine whether one is close to or away from God. 

e. Equality a.nd Human Dignity: Sikhism recognises no distinction 

between man and man on the basis of birth or otherwise. The 

Guru rejected the 3,000 year old caste system in India, and 

accepted and associated with the lowliest among them. His 

concept’ of equality for women can never be surpassed. ‘How 

can she be considered inferior, when she gives birth to kings?’ 

he asked. He also preached a life of honour and dignity. ‘He 

who lives with dishonour, does not deserve the food he eats’, 

says the Guru. 

f. Removal of Inhibitions: Apart from the caste system, which 

restricted one’s right to spiritual pursuits and selection of 

occupation, there were several other restraints in earlier 

religious systems in India. Ahimsa, celibacy, vegetarianism, and 

asceticism were considered essential in the practice of religion. 

He rejected all these and recommended a householder’s life 

with emphasis on noble deeds, dignity of labour, service of 

humanity and full social responsibility. Later the Tenth Master 

confirmed this through his famous Nash Doctrine by which he 

broke away from all earlier traditions. 

g. Development of the Society: The Guru was not concerned with

361 

the individual alone. His concern covered the society as a whole 

also. Based on the gospel preached by him, he founded a settlement 

towards the end of his mission at Kartarpur, which was open to 

all, and in which everybody worked and ate together. People 

subdued under the rigours of caste system, the oppressive alien 

rule and religious bigotry, could not be expected to take over the 

social responsibilities and adjust to the liberation offered in the 

new society, overnight. This infant society had to be nurtured for 

some time, and it had to spread geographically. So the Guru 

introduced the system of succession under which nine Gurus 

carried the mission forward upto the time Guru Gobind Singh 

created the Khalsa. A practical demonstration of Guru Nanak’s 

system had been given. Personal successor after the Tenth. Lord 

was not considered necessary, and the guruship was conferred on 

the Adi Granth and Guru Granth Sahib, or the shabad or the ‘Word’ 

of the Lord. 

h. The Scripture: The Adi Granth, compiled by Guru Arjun Dev, with 

later addition of bani of Guru Tegh Bahadur is the sacred scripture 

of the Sikhs. As pointed out above, the scripture was given the 

status of guru by the Tenth Master. This appointment of the 

Scripture or the Word as Guru is unique to Sikhism. It simply 

means that in spiritualism the real guru is the ‘Word’ or the 

command or shabad of the Lord, and not the human body. Also it 

is only in Sikhism that the Scripture was written and authenticated 

by the founder himself or his successors. In other religions the 

scriptures were written decades or even centuries after the founders 

had left. 

1.2 Besides the above there are some other features that need to 

be mentioned. In contrast to earlier systems, Sikhism is a life-affirming 

faith with a positive attitude towards the world. It is a religion of activism, 

noble actions and altruistic deeds. It is a religion of hope and optimism 

with rich traditions of charhdi kala or ever-rising high spirits. Pacificism 

and pessimism have no place in Sikh thought. Sikh discipline is a conscious 

effort to live in harmony with nature and to carry out the altruistic Divine 

1.3 Macauliffe in his classic study ‘The Sikh Religion’ (1910), 

summed up the moral and political merit of the Sikh Religion thus: 

“It prohibits idolatry, hypocrisy, caste-exclusiveness, the 

concremation of widows, the immuremen of women, the use of wine 

and other intoxicants, tobacco smoking, infanticide, slander,

362 

pilgrimage to sacred rivers and tanks of Hindus; and it inculcates loyalty, 

gratitude for all favours received, philanthrophy, justice, impartiality, truth, 

honesty and all the moral and domestic virtues known to the holiest citizens 

of any country.” 

On the originality of the Sikh religion Macauliffe’s conclusion was: 

“The illustrious author of Vie de Jesus asks whether great originality 

will again arise, or the world would be content to follow the paths opened 

by the daring creators of the ancient ages. Now there is here presented a 

religion totally unaffected by Semitic or Christian influences. Based in 

unity of God, it rejected Hindu formalities, and adopted an independent 

ethical system, rituals and standards which were totally opposed to the 

theological beliefs of Guru Nanak’s age and country. And we shall see 

hereafter, it would be difficult to point to a religion of greator originality 

or to a more comprehensive ethical system.” 

1.4 The religion and the society founded by Guru Nanak grew steadily 

and in the hands of his successors brought about a complete revolution in 

the minds of the people as well as in the social and political setup in the 

North-West of India. His followers challenged the oppressive Mughal 

rule, overthrew it, and supplanted it with an empire of their own based on 

egalitarian principles and freedom of religious practice, with real power in 

the hands of the common people who had had nothing but oppression 

and exploitation at the hands of earlier rulers. The values taught by Guru 

Nanak are as relevant today as in the 15th century when he started his 

mission. The world today needs this faith of hope and optimism that 

preaches ‘sarbat da bhala’ (welfare of all). The Sikhs owe it to the world to 

share their rich heritage with the rest of mankind. Even more, they need 

to do this in their own interest in order to project a correct image of 

themselves. 

II THE PRESENT POSITION 

2.1 The followers of Guru Nanak are no more confined to the land 

of Five Rivers or within the borders of the Indian Union. They have 

migrated to practically all parts of the world with sizeable populations in 

the United Kingdom, Canada, the United States of America, and other 

countries of Europe, America, Asia and Africa. With their turbans, unshorn 

hair which dominate their external appearance, they are easily distinguished, 

and become the object of curiosity. Missionary efforts have not kept pace 

with the requirements of Sikh emigrants, and as a result, they have often

363 

become the victims of suspicion and misunderstanding abroad. Reactions 

of the local population in other countries to the presence of Sikhs have 

varied from a rare appreciation, through common curiosity, to not infrequent 

positive hostility. 

2.2 While the Sikh community in general and their organisations in 

particular, have been completely indifferent to the need for projecting the 

Sikh philosophy and history to the outside world, it seems that some 

hostile agencies have been very active in misreperesenting Sikhism and 

tarnishing the image of Sikhs in the world community. The extent of 

damage that has been done, may be judged from the opinion poll conducted 

in 1988 in Montreal by the Tandmar Research Inc. for the Macauliffe 

Institute of Sikh Studies, Toronto. The findings confirmed the worst fears. 

Thirty percent of’ the population in the sample perceived a clear prejudice 

against Sikhs, the figure being higher than that for the minorities as a 

whole. In the prejudice scale, Sikhs were behind only Blacks and Haitians. 

80% of the respondents knew little or nothing about the Sikhs, and only 

18% knew any Sikh. Although in India Sikhs are known to be the most 

industrious people, only 19% of those surveyed, believed that the Sikhs 

are hard working members of the community. Over 60% thought they 

were untrustworthy. Most alarming, however, was the response to the 

question, “What comes to your mind, when you hear the word Sikh?” 

Forty three percent used terms such as the following: ‘Revolt, conflict, 

riots in India, trouble makers, bringing trouble here, bombing, terrorism, 

violence, fanatics, extremists, fighters, warriors, hostile, don’t like them, 

bad impression, shot Gandhi, fighting with Hindus.’ Only 14% of them 

saw Sikhs as suffering from oppression. 

2.3 One can only hope that the Montreal sample was not 

representative of communities in the West. For Sikhs are a flourishing 

community and are doing very well in most new countries of their adoption, 

in spite of handicaps. Yet the indications furnished by the survey, should 

be enough to shake the community out of its indifference and 

complacence. Steps must be taken to set the record straight and to project 

a correct picture of the great faith of Sikhism and its valiant followers. 

This points to the need for an organisation or an institute for an asessment 

of the world reaction from time to time, for research into and exposition 

of various aspects of Sikhism, and for dealing effectively with 

misrepresentations of Sikh doctrines and history coming from various 

quarters.

364 

III MISREPRESENTATIONS 

3.1 Old Sikh Literature: This includes janam sakhis or biographical 

accounts of Guru Nanak, Cur Bilas or Gur Sobha tradition, Panth parkash, 

Rahitnamas, etc. The janam sakhis contain serious misrepresentations and 

damaging interpolations attributable to schisms. associated with Baba Sri 

Chand (Udasis), Hundal (Niranjanis), Prithvi Chand, DhirMal, Ram Rai, 

and others. Unfavourable critics have frequently drawn upon these sources, 

and will continue to do so, unless studies are undertaken to lift the right 

from the trash that has crept in. The other categories of Sikh literature 

mentioned above, are also not free from the personal whims of the authors 

or the motives of those who sponsored the works. . 

3.2 Encyclopaedias: A survey of entries on Sikhism in 50 major 

encyclopaedias published in the West, has revealed gross 

misrepresentations. These include errors of fact as well as misinterpretation 

of Guru Nanak’s system. The Guru has frequently been shown as a disciple 

of Kabir. Sikhism is invariably presented as a part of Hinduism, and its 

teachings are confused with the so-called Sant Mat. In several cases the 

authors have failed to see the unity of thought of the Ten Masters, 

mistakenly referring to Guru Nanak’s philosophy as pacificismand that of 

Guru Gobind Singh as militancy. Another common misinterpretation is 

the theory of syncretism, which means that Sikhism is only an amalgam 

of elements drawn from Hinduism and Islam, denying any originality to 

Guru Nanak. Recognition of Sikhism as a revealed religion is rare. No 

wonder that the space given to Sikhism is extremely limited as compared 

with other major faiths of the world. Some of these publications make 

only a passing reference to Sikhism, while a few do not even mention it. 

3.3 Recent Misrepresentations: The last two decades have seen a 

mounting of a regular campaign to misrepresent Sikhism. This was started 

by a former missionary in India, who has so far produced eight books 

relating to Sikhism. His thesis revolves around the following main points: 

a. It is misleading to call Guru Nanak the founder of Sikh religion, 

as he did not originate a new school of thought or set of teachings. 

What Guru Nanak offers us is the clearest and most 

highly articulate expression of the nirguna sampradaya, 

the so called Sant tradition of Northern India, a 

system which he inherited, reworked according to his own

365 

genius and passed on in a form unequalled by any other 

representative of the tradition. It was the influence of Nath 

doctrine and practice upon Vaishnava Bhakti which was 

responsible for the emergence of Sant synthesis. 

b. The ten gurus never preached one set of religious doctrines or 

system and particularly the Third Guru created new institutions 

on the old Hindu lines, the very thing Guru Nanak had spurned. 

From the Sixth Guru onwards the teachings of Guru Nanak 

were completely given up in favour of a militant pose in 

response to socio-political situations. 

c. The arming of Panth could not have been the result of any 

decision by Guru Hargobind, but because of Jat influx in the 

Sikh fold. . . “The growth of militancy within the Panth must 

be traced primarily to the impact of Jat cultural patterns and to 

economic problems which prompted a militant response.” 

d. The traditional account about the founding of the Khalsa on 

the Baisakhi day of the year 1699 (AD) cannot be accepted, as 

there are “compulsive reasons for scepticism”, and “the 

traditions relating to the period of Guru Gobind Singh must 

be, in some considerable measure, set aside. The slate must be 

wiped clean and must not be reinscribed until we have 

ascertained just what did take place during the eighteenth 

century.” 

e. The Sikh code of discipline, Rahat Maryada, and Sikh symbols 

were evolved during the eighteenth century as a result of 

gradual growth, though the tradition declares they were 

definitely settled by a pronouncement of Guru Gobind Singh 

and were a part of the Baisakhi day proceedings in 1699 (AD). 

f. Though the’ Gurus denounced caste system and preached 

against it, yet they did not seem sincere or serious in removing 

caste differences. 

g. The succession of the Granth Sahib as Guru of the Sikhs, 

ending the line of personal gurus on the death of Guru Gobind 

Singh, was not because of an injuction of Guru Gobind Singh 

himself but was a subsequent adoption by the Sikhs, who were 

fighting for their existence, to meet the needs of the Panth for 

cohesion. 

h. The authenticity of the current version of Guru Granth Sahib 

which is widely accepted and used by the Sikhs, is open to 

question, since there are three manuscripts (Birs) available 

which are not entirely identical.

366 

3.4 This missionary managed to enlist a few associates from India 

as well as abroad, with whose assistance he has been holding 

conferences and delivering lectures to propagate the above line of 

thinking. For want of an organised resistance his claim to being an 

authority on Sikhtsm has been taken quite seriously in some quarters 

in the West. In fact both the Chairs established in Canadian Universities 

for Sikh Studies with collections from Sikhs are manned by this group. 

3.5 There were some very unfortunate developments relating to 

Sikhs in their home state of Punjab and the rest of India during the 

eighties. These include the army attack on the Golden Temple, 

Amritsar, and other sacred Sikh shrines in Punjab, the massacre of 

thousands of Sikhs in Delhi and. other towns of India, and large scale 

violation of human rights and issue of draconian laws, which withdrew 

even the right to live. This attracted widespread criticism from the 

international community. I would normally not have referred to it, but 

for propagation of disinforrnation even from academic seats and 

platforms in the West. A spate of unfounded propaganda has been 

made against the community. Impression was sought to be created 

that all Sikhs were terrorists, traitors and undependable, and that they 

have no separate religious identity. It seems that the efforts did not go 

in vain, if the results of the Montreal inquiry, mentioned earlier, are 

any indication. 

3.6 Here notice must be taken of the contribution made by a few 

other movements towards misinterpretation of Sikhism and Sikhs. Arya 

Samaj was very active towards the end of the nineteenth century. Its 

leader initiated a relentless tirade of hostile criticism of the Gurus 

and their teachings. Trumpp’s work appeared almost at the same time, 

and may not be a mere coincidence. Other movements that sometimes 

draw on the bani in the Guru Granth Sahib~ to support their doctrines 

diametrically opposed to Sikhism, are the Radha Swamis, and the 

Nirankaris (Delhi based). They are frequently confused with Sikhism 

by unsuspecting persons. While the former continues to take advantage 

of the sayings of Gurus in a subtle way, the latter has entered a phase 

of open hostility towards Sikhism. 

IV THE RESPONSE 

4.1 Upto the end of the 18th century the community was engaged 

in a bitter struggle for survival, any scholastic activities were more 

or less out of question. The common man was not even aware 

of the misrepresentations that had crept in. Even during the

367 

first half of the nineteenth century, when Sikhs ruled the Land of 

Five rivers, the attention paid to the study of Sikh literature with a 

view to setting the record straight, was minimal. While the Sikhs during 

the earlier period, had to abandon their hearths and homes and stay in 

the jungles to escape the wrath of the hostile Moghal rulers, their 

shrines passed into the hands of Udasis and other sects who were 

more Hindus than Sikhs. The British conferred proprietory rights on 

these Mahants. As a result several Hindu rites had been introduced 

and even Hindu images had been installed in the Sikh sacred places 

induding the Golden Temple. Patronisation of Mahants who controlled 

the Sikh shrines, was also aimed at achieving the same purpose. The 

Arya Samaj movement, mentioned earlier, became very active, and its 

founder, Swami Daya Nand started his campaign of Shudhi to bring 

back the Sikhs into the fold of Hinduism. His enthuiasm, however, 

evoked an unexpected and very severe reaction from Sikh theologians 

of the time. This appeared as the well organised Singh Sabha Movement 

in the seventies of the last century. The famous publication of Bhai 

Kahn Singh,’ Ham Hindu Nahin Hain’ shows the gravity of the threat 

of absorption in Hinduism faced by the Sikh Community, as well as 

the intensity of the reaction of the Sikh leadership of the time. The 

other stalwarts engaged in this struggle were Giani Dit Singh and Bhai 

Vir Singh. This Trio will always rank among the greatest scholars and 

theologians of Sikhism. They managed to bring about a revival of the 

real Sikh traditions, and successfully repulsed the attack from outsiders. 

The Movement also effectively checked the inroads the Christian 

missionaris had started making with the advent of British rule in the 

Punjab, besides preparing the community for the struggles that lay 

ahead. The Singh Sabha survives in name even today, but its influence 

is too feeble to be felt. But the glorious role it played in the end of the 

last century, will always be remembered with pride and gratitude. 

4.2 The Akali Movement: The next response came from the Akali 

Movement in the twenties of the present century, which after a 

prolonged struggle, sufferings and sacrifices, succeeded in wresting 

control of the Sikh shrines from the corrupt Mahants who had 

introduced several practices against the teachings of the Sikh Gurus. 

The outcome was the setting up of the statutory body, known as the 

Shromini Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee in 1925 for the 

control and management of the major shrines of the Sikhs. 

This is an elected body which has introduced reforms in gurdwara

368 

management and has restored the Sikh maryada. It carries some 

missionary responsibilities also, which have received only limited 

attention. The body is dominated by politicians, and scholars have 

never had an effective say in its affairs. As a result, research and 

scholarly pursuits have never been its strong points, and the basic 

questions of misrepresentation of Sikhs and Sikhism have not been 

addressed. 

4.3 Recent Interest in Sikh Studies: This started after the Independence 

of India, and received impetus, as the Quincentenary of ‘Guru Nanak’s 

birth approached. Guru Nanak Dev University was set up at Amritsar 

in 1969, with expectations of research into and propagation of the 

mission of Guru Nanak. Departments dealing with religious studies 

had earlier been set up at the Punjabi University Patiala. Several Sikh 

and non-Sikh scholars turned their attention to Sikh studies, and the 

literature that has appeared during the last two decades (Seventies 

and eighties) is indeed considerable, when compared with the very 

lean earlier period. However, the misrepresentations of Sikh ideology 

and Sikh history appear not to have received the attention due to 

them. 

4.4 University Chairs: Well-meaning Sikhs collected funds from 

the Sikh community and succeeded in setting up Chairs .at some leading 

universities abroad with a view to promoting Sikh Studies and 

projecting a correct image of Sikhism and the Sikhs abroad. 

Unfortunately their efforts have so far misfired, since the incumbents 

selected were sometimes non-Sikhs holding derogatory views that make 

a misrepresentation of the Sikh faith. The views of one encumbent 

have been briefly stated earlier. For the other Chair (Vancouver) the 

incumbent selected is a scholar of cultural history. Some of his views 

may be reproduced here for the benefit of readers: 

“If there is any such thing as a key to historical problems, in case 

of Sikh tradition it is to be found in its social constituency, Sikh religion 

is first and foremost a peasant faith. Sociologists have spoken of how 

Islam is an urban religion, Sikhism may be spoken of as a rural religion. 

When dealing with the beliefs, rituals and practices of the Sikhs --be 

they religious or political --it is always worthwhile to constantly 

remind ourselves that we are fundamentally dealing with the peasantry 

and the world view of this social class has historically always been 

bery different from other social classes. A lot of knotty 

issues to do with Sikh studies

369 

would become easier to solve, if we stop applying paradigms that 

have developed out of the study of urban social groups -merchants, 

middle-class or city workers --and deploy concepts that relate to this 

day-to-day life of the peasantry.” 

The finding in the paper read at Berkley about Sikhs being Sakhi 

Sarvarias is partly based on the fact that in the 1911 Census less than 

3% Sikhs had been mentioned as followers of Sakhi Sarvar as well. 

He does not say that this was an aberration despite the teachings of 

the Gurus and of the writings of Sikhs enjoining the worship of God 

alone. In another paper read at Anaheim in 1989 he characterizes the 

present Sikh struggle as ‘fundamentalism’ with little political or 

economic justification. 

4.5 It should be obvious from the above illustrations that these 

Chairs have added a new dimension to the problem of misrepresentation 

of Sikhism. They have not solved any problem, but they have created 

new ones. They are turning out material which is dearly damaging to 

the cause of Sikhism. Instead of improving they are spoiling the image 

of Sikhs. It may be mentioned here that The Institute of Sikh Studies 

Chandigarh and a few other Sikh organisations in India offered to 

discuss some fundamental questions like the originality of Guru 

Nanak’s religion and the Authenticity of the Kartarpuri Bir with the 

University. The offer was, however, not accepted. The only conclusion 

from the sad experience with the University Chairs so far is that these 

can do more harm than good in institutions over which the community 

has no control, and where the incumbents have no sympathy for or 

allegiance to the cause of Sikhism. The new enthusiasm of well wishers 

of Sikhism to promote Sikh Studies through new University Chairs, 

therefore, needs to be directed to more productive channels, i.e. for 

the setting up of independent, institutions strictly under the control 

of the Sikh Community. 

4.6 Meaningful Response: Since the agencies mentioned above, did 

not take any notice of the attacks on Sikhism coming from hostile 

quarters, misrepresentations continued and the critics flourished. It 

was only in the late seventies that a group of free lancers, notably 

Justice Gurdev Singh, S. Daljeet Singh and S. Jagjit Singh took up the 

challenge and set out to controvert the misleading theses of the Group 

led by Dr McLeod. They worked first in their individual capacity, but 

later they organised themselves into ‘The Institute of Sikh Studies’ at 

Chandigarh. As a

370 

result of their efforts a number of publications have already appeared 

and all the points raised by McLeod and his group have been adequately 

dealt with. The following books need special mention in this 

connection: 

a. ‘Sikhlsm - A Comparative Study of its theology andMysticism’ 

by Daljeet Singh (1979) 

i. ‘Sikh Ideology’ by Daljeet Singh (1984) 

ii. ‘The Authenticity of Kartarpuri Bir’ by Daljeet Singh 1987) 

iii. ‘The Sikh Revolution’ by Jagjit Singh (1981) 

iv. ‘Perspectives on Sikh Studies’ by Jagjit Singh (1984) 

v. ‘In the Caravan of Revolutions’ by Jagjit Singh (1988) 

vi. ‘The Sikh Tradition’ by Justice Gurdev Singh (Ed.) (1986) 

vii. ‘Advanced Studies in Sikhism’ by Jasbir Singh Mann & 

viii.Harbans Singh Saraon (Eds.) (1989) 

4.7 Other Organisations: Recently a few other organisations have 

also carried on the academic work on sound footing. The Academy of 

Sikh Religion and Culture, Patiala, under the leadership of Justice 

Gurdev Singh is making valuable contributions. The book ‘The Sikh 

Tradition’ mentioned above is the outcome of its efforts. The Council 

of Sikh Affairs Chandigarh has been taking keen interest in the 

academic field. Outside India, The Sikh Community of North America 

organised a seminar at Los Angeles in December 1988, and the papers 

read have already appeared as’ Advanced Studies in Sikhism’ 

mentioned above. The Sikh Council of Education UK, and the newly 

organised ‘The Canadian Institute of Sikh Studies’, Toronto, have 

actively joined in this effort. As a result of collaboration between 

these societies and The Institute of Sikh Studies Chandigarh, a number 

of Conferences were organised in UK, Canada and USA in November- 

December, 1990 

V. THE PRESENT RELIGIOUS MOOD IN THE WEST: 

5.1 Since misrepresentations of Sikhism have flourished in the 

West, the thinking of the communities in Europe and America, is 

relevant to our problem. The West is by and large Christian in its 

religious and emotional affiliation. The following opinions expressed 

by the representatives of the Christian Churches at their world meets 

and conferences, may be good indicators: 

i. ‘The American view was that there are three realities: 

Christianity, other religions, and secularism, and that

371 

these three realities can either be allies or enemies. It was 

argued that the Christians had to choose whether they were 

to ally themselves with other religions against secularism. 

The Americans, especially the Boston Personalists who were 

leading the debate at that time, took the view that secularism 

is a common danger for all religions to fight secularism. 

European theologians, particularly, Barth, Brunner, and 

Kramer took a totally different view. They maintained that 

secularisation, not. secularism, is the primary process: It is 

a process in which some of the values of Christian faith 

have been put into a secular framework, bringing about a 

powerful force which is destroying all old ideas. Hence 

secularisation is an ally, because it will destroy Hinduism, 

Islam and other forms of what they considered to be 

superstition So we should ally ourselves with secularisation 

and see it as the work of God.” 

ii. ‘That is why at the World Council of Churches it was almost 

impossible to begin any kind of dialogue. That is one of the 

things on which I fought many battles, before we finally 

established a department for dialogue in the World Council. 

We brought Stanley Samartha from India to head the 

Department. That was quite a step forward. But then it was 

ruthlessly defeated in 1975. We had begun very cautiously, 

with a few meetings in the Middle East with Muslims and 

Jews. Then we had a multi-religious dialogue. The one in 

Colombo was the most important one of these, where we 

had all kinds of religions talking to one another. But there 

were problems.” 

iii. “One of the books published during that era by Emily 

Brunner, the Swiss theologian, was called ‘Either/Or. In it 

Brunner argued that Christian gospel has overcome all its 

enemies except one, and that is mysticism. Mysticism is an 

enemy, because it claims that you can have unmediated 

access to God, and as long as you can have unmediated 

access, there is no use for Jesus Christ. Therefore, mysticism 

is the only remaining enemy, and one has to make a clear 

choice: either the gospel or mysticism.”

372 

5.2 In the West religion is generally studied at three places. One 

is the forum of Theological Unions and Christian Seminaries. At these 

places the main study is of the Christian religion. Many of the colleges 

at the Universities are funded by the .Christian community. Thus, 

normally the obligation of the scholar at these institutions is to uphold 

the Christian dogma, e.g., at the Oxford University in England the 

scholar appointed for the study of religion has to give an undertaking 

for the purpose. The second place is the Department of Comparative 

Religion in the Universities. Here different religions are studied as 

traditions. But, todate, whether one likes it or not, the basis of this 

study is generally what is called the reductionist or mechanical method, 

i.e., the studies are by and large governed by the methodology and 

assumptions of evolution, behaviourism or what may be called 

naturalism or empiricism. The net result is that religions are studied 

merely as socio-cultural developments, class developments or 

developing traditions. So much so that many a scholar in this field 

does not accept the very idea of God or the existence of a spiritual 

dimension of Reality. Hence arises the use of somewhat derogatory 

terms like Neo-Sikhism, syncretism, eclectism, evolving Sikh Tradition, 

more specially in relation to non-Christian religions. The methodology 

of social sciences colours and governs very greatly the study of religions 

and their concepts. One finds that many scholars, particularly senior 

scholars of religion, are perturbed over this development. For this 

group, as also for the Sikhs, no study of religion is possible, unless the 

idea of God or the spiritual dimension is accepted as fundamental to 

it. The third field for the study of religion is the one of social sciences. 

Here the study gives us what may be called the Anthropoligist’s view 

of religion or the Sikh religion, the Sociologist’s view of religion, the 

Historian’s view of religion, or the Psychologist’s or the Psychoanalyst’s 

view of Religion. Each of these subjects has its own discipline 

and fundamental assumptions from which it cannot depart, and which 

form the basis of the study of any religion, like Sikhism or any other 

religion. It is necessary to impress that such studies can never be studies 

of religion, as the scholar is primarily governed by the discipline of his 

own subject. For example, for the Anthropologist, the Behaviourist or 

Psycho-analyst, values are just ‘defence mechanisms’ or ‘reaction 

formations’. And for reasons that are obvious he is justified in doing 

so. For, he cannot violate the very

373 

discipline of his subject in which he is trained. The result is that whereas 

from the point of view of the religion concerned such studies look 

vitiated and lop-sided, these are valid from the point of view of the 

discipline of the social science doing the study. 

5.3 As it is, Eastern religions are studied generally under the 

Departments of South Asia or Eastern Studies. In these Departments 

religion is not studied as a separate department or discipline. Studies 

of religion in these organisations are, by and large, anthropological, 

sociological or historical, none of which are bound by the discipline 

of religion or accept its premise. Now, according to the Gurus, Sikhism 

is a revealed religion, and the Bani comprises the Commands of God, 

and the lives of Gurus have been lived in furtherance of that spiritual 

direction, involving the creation of a Panth that was anti-caste and 

anti-class. Secondly, Sikhism is not a tradition, nor can it be studied as 

such. Sikhism has a recorded scripture authenticated by the Guru 

himself. To view or study its principles as a socio-political development 

or as a growth of cultural or class interests or as a tradition is a clear 

distortion, For, a tradition according to Webster, relates to a system or 

doctrines that are understood and conveyed orally. 

VI CONCLUSIONS 

6.1 Sikhism is a revealed religion, and is uncompromisingly 

monotheistic. Based upon his mystic experience, Guru Nanak described 

God as the Ultimate Reality. He is the ‘Creator’, ‘Without Fear or 

Rancour’, ‘Beyond Time’, ‘Unincarnate’ and Self-existent’. He is’ All 

Love’, and ‘Ocean of Virtues’. God is transcendent as well as immanent 

in His creation. The world is real and a place for practising 

righteousness. It is not mithya or a place of suffering, as described in 

some earlier faiths. Life is an opportunity for meeting the Lord. The 

goal of life is to be a gunnukh attuned to the Will of God. The 

methodology comprises householder’s life, earning an honest livelihood 

and sharing the fruits with others in need, truthful living, altruistic 

deeds, high morality, full social responsibility, service and sacrifice in 

the cause of justice, etc. Escapism and parasitism in the garb of 

asceticism and monasticism are condemned. Sikhism preaches a world 

view which is positive, life-affirming and progressive. 

6.2 Misrepresentation of faiths is common. However, Sikhism 

seems to have had more than its share, and more often it has been 

motivated. Misrepresentations abound even in the old Sikh literature, 

e.g., Janamsakhis, Gurbilas Tradition, Rahitnamas, etc.,

374 

and later in the encyclopaedias published in the West. Sikhism is 

invariably presented as a part of Hinduism and is confused with the 

so called Sant Mat or is deemed an amalgam of Nathism and 

Vaishnavism. Theory of syncretism is popular in some quarters, which 

assumes that Sikhism is only a combination of elements borrowed 

from Hinduism and Islam. The Sikh doctrine of Miri- Piri is the most 

widely misunderstood of all and militancy is ascribed to expediency 

or social factors. 

6.3 Response of the Sikh Community to this onslaught or 

campaign of misrepresentations and adverse criticism has been rather 

slow and inadequate. This has encouraged the unsympathetic quarters, 

and their activities have assumed serious proportions and more subtle 

forms. Literature has appeared during the last two decades, which 

seeks to demolish the very foundations of the Sikh faith, distorting 

the history, misinterpreting the teachings of the Gurus, twisting the 

doctrines, denying any originality to the founder or claim to religious 

identity to the Sikhs. 

6.4 The Sikh Community has, by and large, been unaware of the 

damage being done. Mention may be made of some steps taken by 

Government and the Sikh Community, which could have rectified the 

situation with any good luck. A couple of Universities were established 

in India, and some chairs created in India and abroad to carry out 

studies on Sikh religion and to promote sound research. But the 

Universities have their own limitations. 

6.5 Fortunately there is a silver lining to the dark clouds mentioned 

above. A few devoted individuals in India and abroad, have taken up 

the challenge, and have already made a promising start by organising 

societies committed to this cause. They have brought out a number of 

books, giving sound scholarly information about Sikhism and its history. 

In the present climate and age it is essential that reliable academic 

studies on Sikhism are organised, to provide to readers in India and 

abroad, fully and properly researched literature. 

6.6 The present situation demands concerted and coordinated 

efforts. Utmost vigilance is necessary to take quick notice of any 

uninformed or biased attacks on the philosophy, theology, ideology 

and history of Sikhism. Fundamental research needs to be conducted 

into the doctrines of Sikhism. An authentic interpretation of the gurbani 

is required. Basic literature of Sikhism needs to be studied in depth. 

There are some real or

375 

substantial controversies which need to be resolved. This cannot be 

done by small societies and their efforts here and there in an unorganised 

manner. There is an immediate need for Centre(s) of Sikh Studies to 

take up this responsibility. In fact there is need for a full fledged World 

Institute of Sikhism, at a central place with sub-campuses at selected 

places. Alternatively, there may be several Institutes with a Central 

Coordinating Body. It is difficult to give a detailed blueprint of the 

Project in this paper or in a preliminary discussion. This task will have 

to be entrusted to a special committee. Some hints are, however, given 

on the steps involved, in the last Section of this paper. 

6.7 Conceptual Plan: A tentative plan of the contemplated campus 

(assuming a rectangular area of ten acres) is enclosed. The Complex 

includes: 

Gurdwara and Langar 

Pool and Pavilion 

Class Rooms 

Seminar Rooms 

Classical Languages and Music Rooms 

Auditorium 

Open Air Theatre 

Library 

Staff Quarters 

Students Hostels 

Gymnasium and Changing Rooms 

Suites for Visiting Scholars 

Administrative Block 

Outdoor Sports 

Garden of Retreat 

Plaza 

It is for the Sikh Community to turn this ‘Castle in the Air’ into 

a reality and to install it on a firm ground. 

VII WORLD INSTITUTE OF SIKHISM 

7.1 As indicated earlier, details of the Project will have to be 

worked out by special committees. However, some of the steps 

required to be taken, may be mentioned below: 

a) Set up Committee(s) for 

i. Drawing up a Constitution: Name, Aims and Objects, 

Activities, Membership, Management Administration, 

Finances, Status, Coordination, Registration, etc. 

ii. Selection of Location: Major considerations would be

376 

accessibility, availability of facilities, local support, etc. 

iii. Collection of funds. 

iv. Publicity. 

b) Monitoring: This should be done by a high power Committee 

with Members drawn from the above committees and other agencies 

cooperating in the Project. This should also include liaison with similar 

bodies and institutions in other countries. 

7.2 The details should be carefully worked out and given in a 

comprehensive document. It should, however, be borne in mind that 

the goal is eventually to create a University level Institute with modem 

facilities for graduate and post-graduate teaching and advanced research 

on Sikhism leading to highest academic degrees, besides a nucleus for 

a World Sikh Missionary Organisation, as a Separate wing. This may 

have to be achieved in a phased manner, depending upon the physical, 

financial and technical man-power resources. The purpose of this paper 

is to stress the need for a Centre or an Institute to perform the functions 

mentioned above. Once the idea is accepted by the Community, its 

fulfilment is only a matter of time. And with the traditional enthusiasm 

of the Sikh Community, there is no doubt, that the proposed Institute 

will be a reality SOON. 

It is gratifying to note that since then a beginning has been made 

by starting a Centre of Sikh Studies with a library at 2530, Warner 

Ave, Orange County (Cal.), U.S.A.

APPENDIX I 

PROVINCE OF BRITISH COLUMBIA 

OFFICE OF THE PREMIER 

377 

December 2, 1990 

It gives me great pleasure, as premier of British Columbia, to 

convey warm greetings and best wishes to everyone gathered at the 

University of British Columbia today for the Conference on Sikh 

Culture and Philosophy. May I extend an especially warm welcome to 

our visitors from outside of British Columbia. 

I am certain that your deliberations today will provide an excellent 

opportunity for you to exchange a wealth of knowledge and ideas 

which will prove to be of great benefit to all. As you may know, the 

Government of British Columbia recently announced a multicultural 

policy that provides a framework for all British Columbians to share 

in our diverse cultural heritage. Accordingly, your Conference plays 

an important role as we strive to keep British Columbia as a place 

where everyone can live and work together in harmony, mutual respect 

and dignity. 

You and your families are to be commended for your numerous 

achievements and valuable contributions to the prosperity and 

development of our Province and our nation, and for sharing your 

rich tradition with us all so generously. On behalf of the people and 

the Government of British Columbia, may I offer my best wishes for 

a most successful and rewarding Conferences and every good wish for 

the days ahead. 

Conference on Sikh Culture and Philosophy 

University of British Columbia 

Sincerely, 

Sd/ 

William N. Vander Zalm 

Premier

APPENDIX II 

MINISTRY OF STATE, MULTICULTURALISM 

AND CITIZENSHIP CANADA 

Canadian Sikh Study & Teaching Society 

P.O Box 67653, Station O 

Vancouver, British Columbia 

V5W 3VI 

Dear Friends, 

378 

December 2, 1990 

I am pleased to send greetings and best wishes to the Canadian 

Sikh Study and Teaching Society as you hold your Conference on Sikh 

Culture and Philosophy. 

The belief in community values and service lies at the very heart 

of the Sikh way of life. As stated in the Guru Granth, ‘The man who 

is lost in selfishness is drowned without water. . :’ The work that your 

Society does in helping young people and in promoting Punjabi culture 

demonstrates vividly this philosophy of reaching out to one’s brothers 

and sisters. 

I note with particular interest your Society’s commitment to the 

cause of peace, interfaith understanding, and general goodwill among 

Canadians. This particular area of your endeavours clearly serves the 

cause of unity among the members of Canada’s diverse population. 

We are a country increasingly characterized by cultural and religious 

variety. Our differences of custom and ‘belief, however, need not be 

divisive if we determine to treat each other fairly, with dignity and 

respect. In doing so, we not only preserve social harmony, but also 

enrich the very fabric of Canadian life itself.

379 

May youromference prove truly meaningful and rewarding for 

both the members of the Sikh community and your invited guests of 

other faiths. 

Sincerely, 

Sd/ 

Gerry Weiner

APPENDIX III 

A REPORT 

380 

Although, the Sikhs are small in number but their contribution 

to world thought and their amazing achievements in the field of social 

reform have attracted many renowned historians and scholars such as 

Toynbee, Macauliffe, Pearl Buck and many more to study the historical 

development and philosophy of Sikhism. Sikhism was founded by 

Guru Nanak Dev five hundred years ago which established new 

institutions such as Sangat and Pangat in order to eradicate the caste 

system. Guru Nanak appeared in this world to reveal the new and 

original thoughts about God and the true way of Divine worship. Sikh 

Gurus challenged the authority of Brahmins as a high ranking caste 

and also rejected the policy of monopolising military power by the 

caste oligarchy. They declared “0 Unwise, be not proud of thy caste. 

For, a myriad errors flow out of this false pride.” 

Guru Nanak Dev founded new and original principles to bring 

about social and political reforms. The other Gurus followed the 

principles laid down by Guru Nanak and continued their efforts to 

free the masses from the yoke of slavery under the cruel kings and 

religious leaders. Guru Nanak associated himself with the lowliest of 

the Iow caste. Bhai Gurdas writes that Guru Nanak, made the Dharma 

perfect by blending the four castes into one. 

The Sikh nation also ruled over a huge part of India. Under the 

Sikh rule all were treated as equal regardless of their caste and creed. 

There was no exploitation and people had religious, political, and social 

freedom. The Sikhs always stood for human rights, and their 

contributions as a saviour of depressed people is very unique in the 

history of mankind. Even the concept of the Red Cross was also 

founded by the Sikhs when Guru Gobind Singh appointed Bhai 

Ghanaya Ji to provide medical aid and food to all the wounded soldiers 

in the battlefield.

381 

Now, we see the growing number of Sikh organisations and 

Gurdwaras all over the world, but the way of their preaching is not 

very effective and also not acceptable to our new generation. Our 

younger generation is totally neglected and almost ignored. In 1873, 

when four students of the Mission School at Amritsar proclaimed their 

intention to accept Christianity, the whole Sikh nation was shaken 

with the news and those students were approached by the Sikhs not to 

embrace the other faith. The outcome of this incident was the 

formation of Singh Sabha. The Sikhs had to confront Arya Samaj and 

other movements to guard the Sikh faith and its principles. New Sikh 

educational institutions were established and new Sikh literature was 

produced to keep the Sikh identity alive. In order to prove the 

sovereignty of the Sikh doctrine new books were written which were 

entirely based on Sikh scripture (Sri Guru Granth Sahib). 

Even today, we see Hindu styles of worship and practices that 

are accepted in many Gurdwaras because of their ignorance about 

Sikh philosophy and Sikh Code of Conduct (Rehat Maryada). On the 

other hand many quasi-informed scholars write that the Sikh faith is 

not a new faith and it is just a sect of Hinduism. These scholars appear 

biased. Their misinterpretations of Sikh history and philosophy are 

very damaging. Some of these scholars are accepted and appointed in 

the western Universities to teach Sikh religion. Sikhs need to be made 

aware of the misrepresentation of their unique and sovereign faith. 

Keeping in view the basic needs of our youth and to confront 

anti-Sikh scholars, the Sikhs of Vancouver formed a society, named 

“The Canadian Sikh Study and Teaching Society” in 1987. Our 

resources are limited to cope with the growing needs of the Sikh nation, 

therefore, we seek the cooperation of an Sikh societies and 

organisations to propogate our faith very effectively. This society 

undertook to (1) restore Sikh practices in our Sikh institutions and 

Gurdwaras (2) edit and publish historical and religious literature and 

books (3) start magazines and newspapers in English and Panjabi (4) 

hold youth camps and Seminars, and (5) run Panjabi and Heritage 

schools for the younger generation. 

It was a great opportunity when Sikhs of U.S.A. approached this 

society to hold an International Sikh Conference in December, 1990. 

With Guru’s grace and the cooperation of the University Sikh students 

and the Sikhs of B.C, a very successful Conference was held on 

December 2, 1990 at University of British Columbia.

382 

Prominent Sikh scholars from all over the world participated and 

presented their research papers. At the present time, Conferences and 

Seminars: are considered the best source of information where 

distinguished scholars present their knowledgeable papers with new 

findings and thoughts. This Conference was the first of its kind and 

was very successful; more than 600 people participated. The Canadian 

Sikh Study and Teaching Society is very grateful to the scholars who 

presented their papers, and is also thankful to the participants who 

came from all over Canada and the U.S.A. The society is also grateful 

to the Ministry of Multiculturalism for their cooperation and financial 

assistance. . 

THE CANADIAN SIKH STUDY AND TEACHING SOCIETY.

SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY 

383 

PERIODICALS 

Asiatic Researches 

Indian Antiquary (LA) 

Indian Historical Quarterly (LH.Q.) 

Journal of Asiatic Society 

Journal of Asiatic Society Bengal 

Journal of Bihar and Orissa Research Society 

Journal of Bombay Branch Royal Asiatic Society (U.B.B.R.AS.) 

Journal of Royal Asiatic Society (J .R.A.S.) 

Journal of Royal Asiatic Society Bengal (J.R.1\.S.B.) 

Panjab Past and Present (Punjabi University, Patiala) 

Punjab History Conference Proceedings (Punjabi University, Patiala) 

BOOKS (ENGLISH) 

Alberuni’s India, 1965. Edited by Sachav. Delhi. S. Chand & Co. 

Ali, Ameer, 1964. The Spirit of Islam, London. Chatus & Windus. 

Ali, K. 1963. A Study of Islamic History, Calcutta. Eureka Book Agency. 

Ashraf, Kanwar Muhammad. 1970. Life and Conditions of the People of Hindustan. 

New Delhi. Munshiram ManoharlaL 

A vtar Singh. Ethics of the Sikhs; Punjabi University Patiala, India. 

Banerjee, AC. 1978. Guru Nanak to Guru Gobind Singh. New Delhi. Rajesh 

Publications. 

Banerjee, AC. 1978. Guru NanakandHis Times. Patiala. Punjabi University. 

Barth, A 1963. Religions of India. Varanasi Chowkhamba Sanskrit Series. 

Bernier, Francis. 1972. Travels in the Moghul Empire. Delhi. S. Chand & Co. 

Bhagat Lachman Singh. 1970. A Short Sketch of thtJ Life and Works of Guru Gobind 

Singh. Patiala. Language Department, Punjab. 

Bhagvadgita, Annie Besant, (Translation). 

Bharati ya. 1965. The History and Culture of the Indian People. Bombay, Bharatiya 

Bhavan. 

Bougie, Celestin. Essays of the Caste System. Translated by D.E. Pacock (1971). Briggs, 

John. 1966. History of the Rise of the Mohammadan Power in India. Calcutta. S. 

Dey. 

Briggs, John, 1973. The Siyar-ul-Mutakherin. Delhi. Adara-i-Adabiyat. Delhi. 

Brij Narain. 1957. A Dutch Chronicle of Mughal India. Calcutta. Sushi! Gupta 

(India) Ltd. 

Cambridge History of India. 1965, Delhi. S. Chand & Co. 

Correspondence of Persian Records. 1970. National Archives of India. 

Court, Henry. 1959. History of the Sikhs. Calcutta. Sushi! Gupta. 

Cunningham, J.D. 1955. A History of the Sikhs. Delhi. S. Chand & Co. Dabistan. Daljeet 

Singh. 1979. Sikhism. New Delhi. Sterling Publishers. 

Daljeet Singh. The Sikh Ideology. Amritsar. Singh Brothers,

Daljeet Singh. Essays on Authenticity of Kartarpuri Bir. Punjabi University, Patiala, 

India. 

Deussen, P. 1966. The Philosophy of the Upanishads. New York. Dover Publications 

Inc. 

Dhalla, M.N. Joroastrian Civilization. 

Dhillon, Gurdarshan Singh - Researches in Sikh Religion and History. 

Dubois, Abbe. 1953. Hindu Manners, Customs and Ceremonies. London. Oxford 

University Press. 

Duff, James Grant. 1971. History of the Marathas. New Delhi. Associated Publishing 

House. 

Durmont Louis. 1972. Homo Hierarchicus. 

Dutt, N.K. 1968. Origin and Growth of Caste in India. Calcutta. Firma K. L. 

Mukhopadhyay. 

Eliot & Dowson. 1964. The History of India as Told by its own Historians. Allahabad, 

Kitab Mahal. 

Eliot Sir Charles, 1968. Hinduism and Buddhism, London. Routledge & Kegan Paul. 

Elton, G.R. 1965. Reformation Europe, Glasgow, FontanajCollins. 

E.R.E. Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics. Edited by Hastings. 

Fauja Singh. 1976. Hukamnamas, Patiala, Punjabi University. 

Forester, George. 1970. A journey from Bengal to England. Patiala. Language 

Department, Punjab. 

Ganda Singh. 1974. Banda Singh Bahadur, Patiala. 

Ganda Singh. 1976.Early European Accounts of the Sikhs. New Delhi. Today and 

Tomorrow’s Printers and Publishers. 

Gh’urye, G.S. 1969, Caste and Race in India, Bombay. Popular Prakashan. 

Grewal, J.S. 1972. From Guru Nanak to Maharaja Ranjit Singh. Amritsar, Guru Nanak 

Dev University. 

Grewal, J.S., 1970. Guru Tegh Bahadurand the Persian Chroniclers.Amritsar, Guru 

Nanak Dev University. 

Griffin, Lepel. 1967. Ranjit Singh. Delhi.5. Chand & Co. 

Gupta Hari Ram. 1952. Delhi. History of the Sikhs, V 01. I. Simla. Minerva Book Shop. 

,1973. History of Sikh Gurus. New Delhi. U.e. Kapur & Sons. 

,1978 History of the Sikhs, Vol. n. New Delhi. Munshiram Manoharlal!Publications. 

Gurbachan Singh Talib.: 1966. The Impact of Guru Gobind Singh on Indian Society. 

Chandigarh. Guru Gobind Singh Foundation. 

Gurdev Singh. Sikh Tradition. Academy of Sikh Religion and Culture, Patiala, 

India. - 

Guru Granth Sahib, Sir. 1964. Trans. in English by Dr. Gopal Singh.Delhi. Gur Das 

Kapur & Sons. 

Habib, Mohammad. Sultan Mahmud of Ghazni. Delhi (Second Edition) S. Chand & Co. 

HabibuIIah, A.B.M. 1%1. The Foundation of Muslim Rule in India. Allahabad, Central 

Book Depot. 

Harbans Singh. Heritage of Sikhs. Manohar Delhi. 

Hiriyana, M. 1973. Outline of Indian Philosophy, Bombay. George Alien & Unwin. 

Hugel, Baron Charles. 1970. Travels in Kashmir and Punjab. Patiala. Language 

Department,Punjab. 

Hutton,J.S. 1963. Caste in India. Oxford University Press. 

Ibbeston, Sir Denzil. 1970.Punjab Castes. Patiala.Language DepartmentPunjab (rept.) 

Indubhushan Banerjee.1963. Evolution of the Khalsa, Calcutta. A. Mukherjee & Co. 

384

lrvine, William.1971.LAter Mughals. New Delhi. Oriental Books Reprint Corporation. 

Jagjit Singh . The Sikh Revolution. Bahri Publication. New DelhLSikh Religion and 

History. 

Jagjit Singh . Perspectives on Sikh Studies. 

Jagjit Singh .In the Caravan of Revolution. 

Juergensmeyer, M. and N. Gerald Barrier. Sikh Studies. 1979. Berkeley. Berkeleys 

Religious Studies Series. 

Kane, P.V. 1974. History of the Dharma Sastras. Poona. Bhandarkar Oriental Research 

Institute. 

Kartar Singh. 1967. Guru Gobind Singh and the Mughals. Chandigarh. Guru Gobind 

Singh Foundation. 

Keene, H.G. 1973. The Fall of the Moghul Empire. Delhi. Orient Publishers. 

Keith, A.B. The Philosophy of the Vedas and the Upanishads. 

Kethar, S.V. 1979. History of Caste in India. Jaipur.Rawat Pub. 

Khushwant Singh . 1963, 1966. A History of the Sikhs. Princeton. 

Kosambi, D.D. 1962. Myth and Reality. Bombay. Popular Prakashan. 

Kosambi, D.D. 1975. An Introduction to the Study of Indian History. Bombay. Popular 

Prakashan. 

LatH, Syed Muhammed. 1891. History of the Punjab. Calcutta. Calcutta Central Press 

Company. 

Macauliffe, Max Arthur. 1963. The Sikh Religion. Delhi. S. Chand & Co. (rpt.). Malik, 

Arjan Das, 1975. An Indian Guerilla War, New Delhi. Wiley Eastern Ltd. Mann, J.S. and 

H.S. Saraon. Advanced Studies in Sikhism; Sikh Community of North 

America, Irvine, CA, U.S.A. 

Mansukhani, G.S. The Quintessence of Sikhism. 

Manu. The Ordinances of Manu. Trans. by Aurther Coke Burnell, New Delhi. Oriental 

Books Reprint Corporation, 1971. 

Max Weber. 1960. The Religions of India. London. The Free Press, Glencoe. 

Mcleod, W.H. 1975. The Evolution of the Sikh Community. London. 

Mcleod, W.H. 1968.Guru Nanak and the Sikh Religion. Oxford University Press, Mc.’ 

Gregor, W.L. 1846. History of the Sikhs. 

Narang, Gokal Chand.1956. Transformation of Sikhism. New Delhi. New Book Society 

of !nctia. 

Niharranjan l{ay. 1970. The Sikh Gurus and the Sikh Society, Patiala. Punjabi 

University. 

Panikkar, K.M. 1955. Hindu Society at Crossroads. Bombay. Asia Publishing House. 

, 1970.A Short History of the Sikhs, Patiala. LanguageDepartment Punjab (rpt.), 

Price, Major David. 1974. Autobiographical Memories of the Emperor Jahangir, Calcutta. 

Indian Editions. 

Prinsep, Henry T. 1970. Origin of the Sikh Power in the Punjab. Patiala. Language 

Department, Punjab. 

Rhys Davids.1959. Buddhist India, Calcutta, Sushi! Gupta. 

Risley. H.H. 1969. The People of India. Delhi Oriental Book Reprint Corporation. Rose, 

H.A. 1970. A Glossary of the Tribes and Castes of the Punjab and North- West, 

Provinces. Patiala. Langu~ge Department Punjab (rptJ. 

Sardesai, G.S. 1958. New History of the Marathas. Bombay. Phoenix Publications. Sarkar, 

Jadunath. 1928. History of Aurangzeb. Calcutta. M.e. Sarkar & Sons. 

, 1960. Military History of India. Calcutta. M.C. Sarkar & Co. 

Scott, G.B. 1970. -F-eligion and Short History of the Sikhs. Patiala. -Language Department 

Punjab. 

385

Senart, Emile 1975. Caste in India. Delhi.Ess Ess Publications. 

Sharrna Sri Ram. 1972. The Religious Policy of the Mughal Emperors. Bombay, Asia 

Publishing House. 

Sinha, N.K., 1946. Rise of the Sikh Power, Calcutta. A, Mukherjee & Co. 

Smith, Vincent A. Oxford History of India. Oxford University Press. 

Suri, Sohan Lal. 1972. Umdat-u/-Tawarikh, Chandigarh. Punjab Itihas Prakashan. 

Tara Chand. 1963. Influence of Islam on Indian Culture, AlIahabad. The Indian Press 

Publication. . 

Tocqueville De. 1952. L’ Ancient Regime, Trans. by M.W. Patterson Oxford. Basil 

Blackwell. 

Tod, James. 1971. Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan. New Delhi. K.M.N. Publishers. 

Toynbee, Arnold J., 1971. A Study of History. London. Oxford University Press. Wheeler, 

J.T. and Michael Macmillion. 1956. European Travellers in India, Calcutta. 

Susil Gupta & Sons. 

Wilson, H.H. 1958. Religious Ser:Js of the Hindu.Calcutta. Susil Gupta. 

BOOKS (PUNJAB!) 

Asrar-i-Samdi. Trans. by Janak Singh, Punjabi University, Patiala, 1972. 

Adi Granth, Shabad anukramanika.Gurcharan Singh, Punjabi University, Patiala. Bachitar 

Natak, Annotated by Pandit Narain Singh. Jowahar Singh Kirpal Singh. 

Amritsar. 

Batalvi, Ahmed Shah Tarikh-i-Punjab. Trans. by Gurbax Singh, Punjabi University, 


Bhai Gurdas Vars. Annotated by Gyani Hazara Singh Bhai Veer Singh, Khalsa 

Samachar, Amritsar, 1977. 

Bhangu Rattan Singh. Prachin Panth Parkash. Edited by Bhai Veer Singh, Khalsa 

I Samachar, Amritsar, 1962. 

Ganda Singh. Amarnama. Edited by Sikh History Society, Patiala, 1953. 

Hukamnama. Punjabi University, Patiala. 1967. 

Jassa Singh Ah/uwalia, Punjabi University, Patiala, 1969. 

Gurbilas Chevin Patshahi: Anon. Bhasha Vibhag’punjab. 1970. 

Gur Sohba, Sri. Edited by Ganda Singh, Punjabi University, Patiala, 1967. 

Janamsakhi Prampra. Kirpal Singh. Punjabi University, Patiala, 1969. 

Janamsakhi Walaitwali. Edited by Bhai Veer Singh Khalsa Samachar, Amritsar. 

Kannahiya Lal. Tarikh-i”Punjab. Trans. by Jit Singh Seetal, Punjabi University, 


Karam Singh. Bahomulle Lekh. Singh Brothers, Amritsar. 1963. 

Karam Singh. Historian dee Ithasik Khoj, Edited by Heera Singh Dard. Shiromani 

Gurdwara Prabhandak Committee, Amritsar. 

Kesar Singh. Chibber : BansawaIinamaa Dasan Patshahian Ka, Panjab University, 

Chandigarh, 1972. 

Koer Singh. Gurbilas Patshahi Das. Punjabi University, Patiala, 1968. 

Mahan Kosh . Bhai Kahan Singh Nabha. Bhasha Vibhag,Punjab, 1978. 

Mehma Parkash : Sarup Das Bhalla, Bhasha Vibhag,Punjab, 1978. 

Perchian Seva Das. Bhasha Vibhag Punjab, 1978. 

Rehatnama. Edited by Piara Singh Padam, Kala Mandir, Patiala, 1974. 

Sakhi Pothi. Attar Singh Bhadaur. Khalsa Samachar. Amritsar. 1968. 

Sakhi Pothi, Ma/wa Desh Ratan Di. Edited by Attar Singh, Khalsa Samachar,Amritsar, 

1968. 

Sehje Rachio Kha/sa, Harinder Singh Mehboob, Khalsa College, Garhdiwala, 

Hoshiarpur. 

Shabdarath, Four Volumes, S.G.P.c. Darbar Sahib, Amritsar. 

386

Shahid BiIas: Edited by Garja Singh. Punjabi Sahit Academy, Ludhiana, 1%1. Sujan Rai 

Bhandari, Khalastut Twarikh. Punjabi University, Patiala. 1971. 

387

OUR CONTRIBUTORS 

388 

1. Dr A vtar Singh : Head, Department of Philosophy and Dean 

Academic Affairs, Punjabi University, Patiala. Author of ‘Ethics 

of the Sikhs: and many other papers. 

2. Daljeet Singh : Author of ‘Sikhism - A Comparative Study of Its 

Theology’ , ‘The Sikh Ideology “ and’ Authenticity of Kartarpuri 

Bir’; Delivered Guru Nanak Dev Memorial Lectures, and Guru 

Tegh Bahadur Commemorative Lectures at Punjabi University, 

Patiala; contributor of several papers on Sikhism. . 

3. Dr Gobind Singh Mansukhani : Author of ‘Introduction to 

Sikhism’, ‘Guru Gobind Singh’, ‘Life of.Guru Nanak Dev’, and 

seventeen other books on Sikhism. 

4. Gurbakhsh Singh : formerly Dean Punjab Agricultural University, 

Ludhiana; author of’ The Sikh Faith’ and several papers on Sikh 

Religion. 

5. Dr Gurdarshan Singh Dhillon : Reader in History, Panjab 

University, Chandigarh, author of ‘ Researches in Sikh Religion 

and History’, and several research papers on Sikh History: 

Specialist in The Singh Sabha period. 

6. Dr Gurnam Kaur: Reader, Department of Guru Granth Sahib 

Studies, Punjabi University, Patiala; author of Reason and 

Revelation in Guru Granth Sahib’ , and several papers on Sikh 

Religion. 

7. Prof. Gurtej Singh : A distinguished scholar of Sikh Religion; 

National Professor of Sikhism; author of several papers on Sikh 

Religion and History. 

8. Dr Himadri Banerjee : Department of History, Rabindra Bharati 

Univ~rsity, Calcutta. Author of several historical papers on Sikh 

Religion. 

9. Jagjit Singh : Author of ‘Sikh Revolution’, ‘Perspective on Sikh 

Studies’, ‘In the Caravan of Revolutions’, and ‘Ghadar Party di 

Lehar’, besides other publications and papers on Sikh Studies.

389 

10. Dr Kharak Singh Mann : Secretary, Institute of Sikh Studies, 

Chandigarh. Author of several research papers on Sikh Studies. 

Editor, Abstracts of Sikh Studies, Chandigarh, and . Fundamental 

Issues in Sikh Studies.’ 

11. Dr Madanjit Kaur : Head, Department of Guru Nanak Studies, 

Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar; author of ‘Golden Temple’ 

and several research papers on Sikhisin; Editor-in-Chief, Journal 

of Sikh Studies, GND University, Amritsar. 

12. Dr Noel Q. King: Professor of Religion, University of California, 

Santa Cruz, USA; author of several books on Religion, and papers 

on Sikh Studies. 

13. Dr Surinder Singh Kohli : Formerly Dean of University 

Instructions, Panjab University, Chandigarh; Director Guru Nanak 

Foundation, New Delhi; author of six dozen books on Sikhism. 

14. Dr James R. Lewis : Professor of Philosophy and Religion, 

Appalachian State University, Boone, North Carolina, USA; 

author of several papers on Sikh Studies. 

15. Dr Jim Lotz : Sociologist and writer from Halifax, Canada; closely 

involved in studies on Multicultural Developments in Canada. 

16. Dr RanbirSingh Sandhu : A distinguished scientist and Head, 

Department of Engineering Studies, Ohio State University, 

Columbus, Ohio. Also heads Sikh Religious and Educational 

Trust, Dublin, Ohio. 

17. S. Iqbal Singh Sara : A senior Barrister-at-Law and a leading citizen 

of Vancouver; a keen scholar of Sikh Studies.

FOREWORD 

Religion involves the spirit of inquiry - inquiry into the innerself. 

With its well directed aim of discovering truth, religion through the 

millenia, has been helping man to grow physically, mentally and 

spiritually and achieve fulfilment. The older civilizations took guidance 

from religion and tenaciously held to a view, which made it a high 

adventure of the spirit, a converging life endeavour to realize and 

grasp the hidden meaning of existence. In the absence of this longing 

and struggle, the belief of the faithful does not differ from the unbelief 

of the faithless, and the meaning of that and earnestness which 

proceeds from an inner hunger can hardly be understood. Religion 

primarily is a matter of inner experience and not an affair of mere 

belief, or dogma or conformity, which stifle the spirit of free inquiry. 

There are two dimensions to every religion, especially to every one of 

the highly developed world religions-religion as a historically 

conditioned socio-political expression, and religion as a path to the 

experience of God, or any value equivalent to it. The first consists of 

rules and regulations pertaining to the routine living and other social 

disciplines, besides myths, legends and cosmological theories. These 

socio-political constituents of a religion demarcate it from other 

religions. The second dimension consists of the truly spiritual part, 

with its emphasis on personal morality, worship and adoration and the 

disciplines designed to ensure the spiritual growth of man. The latter 

constitutes the essential part, whereas the invariable but non-essential 

part is also relevant so long as it does not choke the spiritual essense 

and its growth. Spirituality makes religion not only cultivate a spirit of 

toleration, questioning, and inquiry in its own sphere, but also foster it 

in every other department of life. It generates humility, the spirit of 

self-sacrifice and above all the love for all creation. Religion, says 

Guru Nanak, spans the true extreme ends-the total indulgence 

in the world and the total negation of the mundane 

realties-thus regulating the behaviour of man parvirati nirvirat

hatha dovai vici dharamu phirai raibaria (GG. 1280). 

There is, however, a contradictory obverse of religion. Bigotry, 

fanaticism and intolerance have affected the human relations. Wars 

have been waged, crusades have been launched to establish the supremacy 

of one religion over the other. The innocent masses nave been massacred 

to promote the cause of religion. All these misadventures have clouded 

the true import of religion. 

The ancient civilizations were destroyed by the barbarians bred 

outside those civilizations. But the modern civilization, if allowed to go 

the same way, will be destroyed by the barbarians bred within the civilization 

itself. What can save us from this predicament is a little more of ‘Christian 

love’ in our hearts for our neighbours, as Bertrand Russell said, or a little 

‘more altruism’ in the words of Pitrim S. Sorokin. This love comes from 

the practice of true religion as defined by the authentic spiritual teachers 

of the world. The testament of the great religious teachers is, that religion 

creates healthy internal environment which pulls down the walls of 

ignorance and prejudice with the waves of inquiry and illumination. 

Sikhism being prominent among the comity of religions has 

attracted the worldwide attention of scholars and theologians. The Guru 

Granth Sahib as the mainstay of the Sikh thought gives an insight into the 

Sikh Weltanschauung. The Sikh religion can be understood essentially as a 

spiritual-cum-temporal force created in order to meet the challenges of all 

times. Quite a number of scholars have endeavoured to interpret and 

explain the subtleties and nuances of the Sikh cosmology and Sikh ethics, 

as well as the growth of its social responsibility. 

But unfortunately in the enthusiasm of producing something 

‘revealing’, some Western scholars recently have indulged in inspired 

guesses terming it as a syncretic faith, an adumbration of a variety of 

religious strands; and that the militant nature of the Sikhs grew in this 

religious community after a particular caste group responded to the call of 

the Gurus and made inroads into the faith. A whole lot of misunderstanding 

has been created by the questionable approach adopted by these scholars. 

The publication of the present volume ironically 

synchronizes the turbulent times when the Punjab is passing 

through a critical phase. The papers included in the book were read 

and discussed in seminars recently held at the Toronto and other 

vi

Universities. They remove much of the misconceptions which shrouded 

the vision of the baffled scholars. The basic issues pertaining to the 

growth of Sikh consciousness, temporal and spiritual Sikh peculiarities 

and above all the historical compulsions which motivated the search 

for Sikh identity, have all been objectively argued and analysed, of 

course with the sympathetic consideration for other religious traditions. 

I believe this book of considerable merit would be of immense use for 

the students and scholars of religion and history. 

Punjabi University H.K. MANMOHAN SINGH 

Patiala Vice-Chancellor 

13 July, 1992 

vii

PREFACE 

The initiative for the seven Conferences held in UK and North 

America in November and December 1990, came during a discussion 

between Dr Jasbir Singh Mann of the Sikh Community of North 

America and Dr Darshan Singh and S. Balbir Singh Nijjar, President 

and Secretary respectively, of the Canadian Institute of Sikh Studies, 

Toronto, while Dr Kharak Singh of the Institute of Sikh Studies, Punjab 

was in Canada on a private visit. S. Kuldip Singh Chhatwal and S. 

Bhupinder Singh Sarkaria of Waterloo were among active supporters 

of the proposal. Simultaneously, the idea was also taken up by Dr 

Pargat Singh, Dr Baljit Singh Bagga and Dr G.S. Mansukhani, President 

Secretary, and Member, respectively, of the Sikh Council of Education, 

UK. The proposal was welcomed by Dr Gurbakhsh Singh Gill, the 

Roving Ambassador of Sikhism, and leading Sikh Organisations in 

North America. Accordingly, the President, S. Satnam Singh, and 

Secretary, S. Jasbir Singh, of the Canadian Sikh Study and Teaching 

Society, Vancouver, Dr N.S. Kapani and Dr Sabharwal of the Sikh 

Foundation USA, San Francisco, S. Harjit Singh, Gursharanjit Singh, 

S. Balwant Singh Hansra, and S. Pritam Singh of the Sikh Religious 

Society, Chicago, Dr Rajinder Singh Bajwa, Dr Rajwant Singh, S.G.S. 

Ahluwalia and S. Amrik Singh, of the Guru Gobind Singh Foundation, 

Washington DC, and S. Jatinder Singh Sabharwal, President, the Sikh 

Cultural Society, New York and Dr Satnam Singh Dhami of the Tristate 

Area Sikh Society also joined the other organisations to hold 

International Conferences at Vancouver, Berkley, Chicago, Washington 

DC and New York. At their instance the Institute of Sikh Studies, 

Chandigarh, made a choice of the subjects and the related scholars, 

with speciality in those fields for addressing the seven Conferences. It 

is our pleasure to convey gratefulness on behalf of the nine 

organisations mentioned above to the organisers and helpers who have 

with their labours made the Conferences at each place a success. 

We also take this opportunity to profusely thank all the

contributors and hosts who have funded the Conferences and offered 

generous hospitality to the scholars and other participants. 

We should like to convey our special gratefulness to the scholars 

who have very kindly contributed their papers at the Conferences mentioned 

above. Our deep thanks are also due to Dr Hugh Johnston, Professor of 

History, Simon Fraser University of RC., Dr Newman, Principal Harbhajan 

Singh, Kirpal Singh Sirha, Lou Singh Khalsa, S. Kuldip Singh Channi, 

who contributed their papers at the Conferences, but for one reason or 

the other could not send their revised contributions. 

The papers were appropriately divided for publication in two 

volumes, this one mostly of papers read or contributed in North America, 

and the other of papers received for the London Conference. Our particular 

thanks are due to the Editors for their long and hard labour in obtaining, 

and editing the material. It has indeed been a labour of love in furtherance 

of the cause that is dear to our nine Organisations. We would be failing in 

our duty, if we did not thank S. Manohar Singh Momi for his honorary 

organisational and secretarial work for the publication of the two volumes. 

We are deeply grateful to the Members of the Institute for their 

generous help in the organisation of the Conferences and the publication 

of the two volumes. 

On behalf of the nine organisations it is our pleasure to express 

our sincere and deep gratitude to Dr HK Manmohan Singh, Vice- 

Chancellor, Punjabi University, Patiala, for his keen interest in this academic 

venture involving publication of the volume comprising the North 

American papers. In this regard our thanks are also due to Professors Jodh 

Singh and Balkar Singh of the Punjabi University Patiala, for their valuable 

suggestions. 

Lastly, and importantly, we should like to express our gratefulness 

to Dr Hazara Singh of the Publication Bureau, Punjabi University, Patiala, 

for his invaluable guidance and help in the publication of the papers. In 

fact, the speed with which the publication has come out, and the quality 

of it are mainly due to his expertise in the field. 

The Editors have indicated the objectives of organising the various 

Conferences, and the reasons for the choice of subjects of 

the papers contributed. It is our pleasure in offering these 

publications for the scholars and the reading public in India 

and abroad. We hope that these papers will contribute towards 

x

projecting an authentic image of Sikh religion, history and institutions, 

and in creating better understanding of Sikhism, especially in countries 

abroad where Sikhs have settled. 

We owe a special debt of gratitude to all the organisations 

mentioned earlier and the Sikh Sangat of the various cities and areas 

for their liberal contributions, enthusiastic cooperation and 

participation in the Conferences to make them a success. Our sincere 

thanks are also due to Dr Satinder Kaur Mann, Dr Datar Singh Sodhi, 

Dr Amrit Singh Sekhon, Dr Piara Singh and Sardar Rajinder Singh 

Walia for their very generous contribution for the holding of the six 

Conferences in North America. 

October 1, 1991 Maj. General Mohinder Singh (Retd.) 

MVC, MC. 

President 

Institute of Sikh Studies, 

Chandigarh 

xi

INTRODUCTION 

After the Punjab Crisis of early eighties, there has, in the West, been a 

growing interest in the Sikhs, their religion and history. This interest 

has especially been keen in countries where Sikh migrants have settled. 

Unfortunately, the meagre literature that has since appeared, including 

that from academic circles in the West, has mostly been of a journalistic 

level, far from being well-researched. Second, the publication in 1989 

of the papers of the Conference on Sikh Studies, held by the ‘Sikh 

Community of North America’, at Long Beach, California State 

University, has created further demand from Sikh Organisations in 

UK, Canada and USA for an authentic projection of Sikhism and its 

history. Third, with the increasing erosion and confusion in the moral 

life of modern cultures serious scholars of religion would like to know 

what is the stand of Sikhism on this important issue. 

In this context, the Sikh Council of Education, UK, the 

Canadian Institute of Sikh Studies, Toronto, the Canadian Sikh Study 

and Teaching Society, Vancouver, The Sikh Students Association of 

U.B.C., Vancouver, The Sikh Association of S.F.U. Vancouver, The 

Sikh Foundation U.S.A. San Francisco, The Sikh Community of 

Chicago, Guru Gobind Singh Foundation and Guru , Nanak 

Foundation, Washington DC, the Sikh Cultural Society, 

New York and the Sikh Community of the Tri-State Area, New York, 

approached the Sikh Community of North America, Los Angles, and 

the Institute of Sikh Studies, Chandigarh, for organising Conferences 

of Sikh Studies under their auspices. 

Accordingly, the two organisations concerned deliberated over 

the matter, made a choice of subjects relating to the Sikh Ideology 

and history that were both topical and needed elucidation, and 

approached specialists to write papers on them. Scholars from all areas 

and countries were invited to attend and participate in the Conferences. 

A series of seven Conferences was organised to meet the 

demand. The first Conference was held at London (Essex hall), on

the 17th and 18th November, 1990. The papers contributed at this 

Conferences form a separate volume. The second Conferences was held 

at the University of Toronto, Wallberg Building, St. George Campus, 

Toronto on the 24th and 25th November, 1990. The third Conference 

took place at Vancouver in the Old Auditorium, University of British 

Columbia, on the second December, 1990. The fourth was organised at 

the Berkley University, on the 5th December, 1990. The fifth one took 

place at Chicago, on the 6th December, 1990. The venue of the sixth was 

the George Washington University, Washington DC, on the 8th December, 

1990, and the last Conference was held on the 15th December, 1990 at 

New York. These Conferences have been the biggest ever academic event 

in the field of Sikh Studies. Over forty papers were contributed. The 

number of those who participated and discussed them fruitfully was about 

two thousand. Scholars from different disciplines and parts of the world 

presented their papers, and many of them addressed more than one 

Conference. At Vancouver messages were received from Mr. William N. 

Vander Zalm, Premier of British Columbia, and Mr. Garry Weiner, Minister 

of Multi-culturism and Citizenship, British Columbia. Dr Dennison Moore, 

Chief of Staff, Multi-culturism, who brought the message, addressed the 

Conference. (For messages see Appendixes I and II). 

The papers contributed at the Conferences in Canada and USA, 

and received after revision have been divided into four Sections, namely, 

Ideology, Methodology, Sikh History, and General. The present Volume 

comprises 23 papers. The second Volume, entitled Fundamental Issues in 

Sikh Studies, contains 18 papers mostly read at the London Conference. 

In recent years there has inexplicably been a tendency to choose 

current issues, and rush to the press, even where the available information 

is inadequate. True, there is no bar to taking up current issues, provided 

opinions are based on sound information and are honestly held. But, doubts 

on this score are natural to arise, when views expressed are far from wellfounded. 

For example, there have been a spate of books and papers 

including those from academic circles about the Punjab problems. The 

paper (published in the London Volume) on the water dispute, which 

forms the hub of the Punjab problem, shows that not one of those 

publications or papers mentions even the barest facts of 

the issue, much less its historical or constitutional aspects. 

Hence merely calling ‘wolf’, ‘tragedy’ or ‘disaster’ or the expression of 

xiv

drawing-room talk cannot be a substitute of presenting a sound factual 

statement or analysis. The difficulty of producing an objective 

statement about current affairs by an academician is well recognised 

and understood. Therefore, except for papers seeking to dispel the 

confusion created by some hasty observations, we have refrained from 

taking up current topics. Besides, as emphasized already, it is probably 

more fruitful to understand the present by a thorough study of the 

past, instead of following the inverted process of putting the cart 

before the horse, and reconstructing the past as a projection of the 

fluid present. Apart from the difficulty of the task for the academician, 

the finding sometimes could be quite subjective or misleading. For, 

writing current history, however tempting, is the preferred task of the 

journalist and not so much of the academician. The papers of King, 

Kharak Singh, Dhillon and Daljeet Singh, in the two volumes expose 

the hazards of making such attempts about current matters. 

A word about another misapprehension in some circles. Neither 

the use of the ‘Western’ nor of the ‘Modem’ critical method is 

unwelcome. It is the lack of it or some substandard works which are 

the lament. Kharak Singh’s paper shows how inadequately 

authenticated are most of the entries about Sikhism in Western 

encyclopaedias. And yet no one has been able to bring them upto the 

mark or even uptodate, showing thereby, the paucity of scholarship 

regarding Sikhism. Over-dependence on the views of ex-missionaries, 

naturally conditioned by their profession, or sporadic visitors to India, 

cannot obviously be of any great help or merit. 

There is an important fact which needs to be stressed about 

Sikh studies. The Sikh Gurus clearly state that the hymns in the Guru 

Granth emanate out of their spiritual experience. The lives of the 

Sikh Gurus clearly and profoundly give expression to that experience 

and the thesis it conveys. It is, therefore, logically and ideologically a 

contradiction to divorce the study of Sikh history from a study of the 

Guru Granth and its theology. We do not for one moment suggest that 

historians, sociologists and anthropologists should not study Sikhism 

from the point of view of their respective disciplines. Even among them 

there are in each discipline, two kinds of interpreters: those that accept 

the existence of a fundamental Spiritual Reality, and those that do not 

and interpret every thing from the materialist point of view. So far as scholars 

who believe in religion or have some religious faith, are 

xv

concerned, their stand on the issue of religious history is well known. 

It is true that there are historians, sociologists and anthropologists 

who would like to study a religion purely from the materialists point 

of view, and for that matter, have no obligation to accept the source 

or validity of a scripture or its ideology. But, 

to the ordinary reader and the scholar they owe an obligation to state 

the extent of their limitation, the scope of their vision and the lens through 

which they view it. For exmaple, a historian like Toynbee who accepts the 

value of spiritual experience observes, “They (Prophets) are not the product 

of their social milieu; the events that produce them are encounters between 

the human beings and the Absolute Reality that is in, and at the same 

time, beyond all the phenomena of Existence, Life, and History; and any 

soul may meet God at any time and place in any historical circumstances. 

Nevertheless an examination of the social milieu will help us to understand 

the nature, as well as the rise, of religions in which this experience of 

meeting God is communicated and commended to Mankind as the 

inspiration for a new way of life.” 

In this context, we make no apology for emphasizing the 

inalienable connection between a study of the Guru Granth and the lives 

of the Sikh Gurus, and the study of the development of their religion. 

Hence the consequent necessity of correlating the two studies. But, we 

do not any time exclude the possibility of the study of religion and its 

history from the point of view of the materialist, except for the need of 

disclosing the ideological stand of the author. 

In this volume, on Ideology King has contributed two papers: 

“Fundamentalism, Modernity: Sikhism A Tertium Quid” and “An 

Incomparable Liturgy: Sacred Nit-Nem among the World Religions”. In 

the first paper he makes a close study of the Sikh doctrines and explains 

how misleading it is to brand them as fundamentalism, a word drawn 

from the Christian background, suggesting rigidity, primitivism and 

anachronism, or to call Sikhism a peasant or Jat society. He makes a 

penetrating analysis of the post-modern situation that has led to certain 

revivalist movements. Actually, the problem is that there are visible cracks 

in the modern culture, threatening deterioration and disintegration in its 

societies; and correspondingly there is a tendency to turn to religion as a 

means of “survival, recovery and resurgence.” In fact, we feel 

that further the veil over the Russian Empire is removed, the greater 

would be the disillusionment with the so-called modern view 

of history. So far as the Sikh society is concerned, King feels, 

xvi

xvii 

it has been “the continued unfolding of enseeded, encoded nature of 

Sikhism as propounded by the First Mahalla and the other Nine. 

“Referring to the Sikh society, both in the nineteenth century and in 

the present times, he writes, that it is nothing beyond invoking or 

working out of the original teachings of Guru Nanak, emphasising 

the brotherhood of man in the classic words that there is “No Hindu 

nor Mussalman”, but only man. He observes that Sikh scholars 

thoroughly grounded in their own inheritance, may in due course 

contribute much to a genuine theory of world history. 

It is with deep lament that we record the sudden and sad demise 

of Dr Avtar Singh, the outstanding exponent and scholar of Sikh 

Philosophy. His passing away is an irreparable loss to the world of Sikh 

scholarship. It is unfortunate that the shocking happening took place, 

before he could send his revised papers to us. We are, therefore, including 

only the abstract which he had sent to us for advance circulation. It contains 

an extremely important observation, namely, that it is the Sikh ethics and 

Sikh Philosophy that form the fundamental context that gives rise to Sikh 

history and social development, which cannot be understood and 

appreciated without reference to the core, which is the fount that gives 

life, strength and drive to them. He writes ‘’This confusion results into 

invitation to the sociologist, anthropologist and some historians to continue 

talking about identity without reference to the ethical core which is the 

inner element. The results range from genuine confusion to intentional 

misleading of Sikhism.” 

Daljeet Singh has contributed two papers on Sikh Ideology, “The 

Sikh World-view: Its Ideological Identity” and “Sikh Religion and Politics”. 

In his first paper he explains that the Sikh thesis is based entirely on the 

spiritual experience of the Gurus. He classifies world religions into four 

categories, and considers all Indian religions before Guru Nanak to be 

dichotomous or life-negating, in the sense that they make a clear division 

between the spiritual path and the empirical path, with the religious person 

owning monasticism, Sanyasa, celibacy, or withdrawl from empirical life. In 

the second category, he places Judaism and Islam, which started as whole-life 

religions, but in which withdrawal and dichotomy appeared later in their history, 

in the form of cults like those of Essenes, Kabbalists, etc., in one case, and of 

Sufismin the other case. He places Christianity in the third category, being 

virually in line with the views of Jeremiah, who recommended non-resistance 

to the evil of Babylonian invasion. Therefore, despite the

xviii 

fundamental of treating ‘your neighbour as yourself’, Christian 

pacificism has led to religious withdrawal and the appearance of 

monastries and nunneries from the end of the Third Century A.D. It is 

this other-worldliness in the Christian Society that historians like 

Gibbon and Sir James Fraser, have considered to be a cause of the fall 

of the Roman Empire. The Reformation, he indicates, dealt a blow to 

the supremacy of the Church, which became virtually a subordinate 

wing of the national state. This dichotomy ultimately has given rise to 

the phenomena of Secularism, Communism, Individualism, and 

Consumerism, causing increasing erosion of the moral fibre of modern 

societies. In the context, he highlights the independence and whole-life 

character of the Sikh World-View, which apart from being optimistic, 

seeks to ensure that Sikhism, like Judaism does not turn into withdrawal, 

or a salvation system. In order to avoid this decline, ‘the Tenth Master has 

prescribed the keeping of Kirpan, which is, on the one hand, a constant 

reminder to the Sikh, of his social responsibility, and on the other hand, a 

warning against escape to monasticism or other-worldliness. In the other 

paper he brings out that the miri-piri doctrine is fundamental to the religious 

experience of the Gurus and the system of Guru Nanak. While in the 

Indian context this doctrine is entirely new and original, it forms an integral 

part of all whole-life religions that combine the spiritual and the empirical 

components of life. The author traces how, in pursuance of the needs of 

the doctrine and the times, each Guru systematically contributed to the 

development of the Sikh Panth from the period of Guru Nanak to the 

end of the seventeenth century, culminating ultimately in the creation of 

the Khalsa. He concludes that all misunderstandings and misrepresentations 

about Sikhism are due to the failure of some scholars to accept the miripiri 

doctrine as an integral part of a whole-life system, and their insistence 

to interpret and view Sikhism through the glasses of their own beliefs and 

philosophies. 

Gurtej Singh’s article “Political Ideas of Guru Nanak the 

Originator of the Sikh Faith”, has brought out with clarity the political 

concerns of Guru Nanak in his ideology and life. He has referred to two 

groups of outside scholars. The first group, he states, although they cannot fail 

to note the socio-politically oriented hymns of Guru Nanak, always appear to 

be anxious to include him within the framework of their pacificist formulations. 

The second group led by Cunningham, who was the first to doubt

the veracity of earlier observations, perceived the wide import of the 

teachings of Guru Nanak, as applicable to every state of life and every 

condition of society. Guru Nanak emphasizes that in God’s order a ruler 

working without regard to universal values and justice, should have a fall, 

and that under certain circumstances it is more honourable to resist and 

die than to live under an immoral and tyrannical rule. This is the call Guru 

Nanak gives to every lover of God, when he asks him to be ready to 

sacrifice his head on the path of love. The Guru, he says, firmly believes 

that no individual can tread the spiritual path without fulfilling his valuebased 

role in the relationship with society and socio-political organisations. 

For Guru Nanak the path to spiritual fulfilment is through right conduct, 

including that in the socio-political field, incessant striving, rigorous 

discipline and God’s grace. 

Kharak Singh in his paper “Guru Nanak in the History of 

Religious Thought” recounts the essentials of the Guru’s life-affirming 

ideology that accepts the reality of the world. He emphasizes that it was 

Guru Nanak who rejected asceticism, ahimsa, celibacy and withdrawal 

from life, and founded a society of householders with the social 

responsibility of ensuring justice and equality between man and man, 

man and woman, and in the sharing of wealth. Again, it is Guru Nanak 

who has laid emphasis on deeds and the necessity of resisting injustice 

and oppression in the socio-political sphere. In this context, he shows 

how inadequate and erroneous is the understanding of Surjit Hans in his 

book “Reconstruction of Sikh History from Sikh Literature”. He finds his 

translation of Guru’s hymns faulty, and consequently his interpretations 

unreliable. The paper furnishes an objective lesson as to how risky it is for 

social scientists to rush to the press without ,sufficient understanding or 

knowledge of Gurbani, its idiom and world-view. 

As a teacher of Sikh philosophy, Gurnam Kaur analyses the three 

kinds of knowledge, namely, perceptual knowledge, rational knowledge, 

and intuition, accepted in the Guru Granth, and how the Gurus have 

stressed the need of integrating them for living a fuller spiritual life, while 

giving primacy to the role of revelation. They accept the use of reason for 

fruitful activities of the seeker. She concludes that the Sikh Gurus 

emphasize that the Sachiara, the true man, in consonance with the altruistic 

Will of God, is fully “Conscious of his social responsibilities and utilises 

his knowledge for the development of the human society.” 

xix

As a distinguished scholar of long standing, G.S. Mansukhani is 

critical of the Western historical method. For, it fails to take into account 

the important sources of oral history, tradition, the Sikh value system and 

Gurmat. The sanctity and importance of Gurmat (the Sikh doctrines in 

the Guru Granth and the injunctions of the Gurus) are so fundamental 

that no Sikh could ever think of violating them. It is because of such 

ignorance of Gurmat that while the Sikhs in the early Eighteenth century 

have laid down their lives to maintain their hair, a Western scholar seeks 

to deny the injunction and, instead, traces the origin of the practice to an 

old tribal custom. Mansukhani stresses the need to study Gurmat and 

Sikh values so as to avoid such pitfalls. 

Kohli gives a biographical account of Guru Arjun Dev, indicating 

his landmark activities. In compiling the Sikh Scripture he exhibited a 

unique vision, thereby eliminating permanently all future controversies 

that could arise regarding Sikh doctrines or the text of the bani. Similarly, 

he started the institution of Daswandh which has since cemented the 

cohesion of the Panth as a distinct society. 

Jagjit Singh delineates the historical expression of the Miri Piri 

doctrine. While indicating that this component is fundamental to the system 

of Guru Nanak, he shows how each Guru took significant and specific 

steps to create new institutions and to build and prepare a society that 

should be able to discharge its socio-political responsibilities as envisaged 

by the First Master. His account dispels the simplistic notion that the 

Fifth Guru was a pacificist. For, he explains that it was he who created’ 

a state within a state’ in his time and it was this political build-up 

which aroused the ire of the emperor Jahangir, who ordered his 

execution in order to destroy the political potential of the Sikh Society. 

He adds that even sociological studies of Weber and others clearly 

envisage overt political activities by some religions that are neither 

pacificist nor monastic. On the basis of the multifarious steps Guru 

Arjun took, he concludes, that more visible and logical. political 

developments took place in the time of Guru Arjun than in the period 

of the Sixth Master, who followed his father’s instructions. 

Himadri Banerjee gives a synoptic description of how the 

creation of the Khalsa has been viewed in the non-Sikh Indianliterature, 

especially in the Hindi, Bengali and Oriyan publications. By and large, 

he finds that the Sikh history of the period has received 

approbation of the scholars of those areas. Banerjee 

xx

unfolds a healthy and meaningful perspective recounting how the interest 

and activities of a minority were viewed in the early part of the century, 

compared to the tension-borne and competetive electoral politics of the 

present day. 

Madanjit Kaur in her paper entitled “Koer Singh’s Gurbilas Patshahi 

10' : An Eighteenth Century Sikh Literature”, makes a detailed analysis 

of the dating of this writing, and comes to the conclusion that Surjit 

Hans’s view, in contradiction to the findings of Bhai Vir Singh, Fauja 

Singh and Shamsher Singh Ashok, is untenable. She has examined, one by 

one, all the arguments adduced by Hans to call Koer Singh’s work a 

nineteenth century production, and finds them to be frivolous, especially 

in the face of the clear recording of the date which synchronizes with all 

internal evidence of the book. 

Dhillon’s paper ‘The Sikhs and the British” gives a clear picture 

of how the British had been taking every step to ensure the destruction 

of the ideological and the political base and strength of the Sikhs. His 

account disproves the. journalistic notions held by persons like Barrier, 

Mcleod, Kapur and Oberoi, that the British were interested in advancing 

the political strength or identity of the Sikhs. This well-researched paper 

shows how easy-going scholars who adopt politically-current or convenient 

notions, often tend to create unsound history. 

The author’s second paper is a case study of Oberoi’s paper ‘From 

Ritual to Counter-Ritual’ read at the Toronto Conference in 1987, wherein 

he asserted that, while in the earlier four hundered years the Sikhs had 

no separate religious identity, it was created by the Singh Sabha in the 

late nineteenth century. Dhillion’s analysis shows that Oberoi’s 

suggestion made at Toronto, is too superficial to be sustained either 

historically or factually. 

This paper highlights the need of multi-disciplinary approach 

for the study of complex socio-religious issues, and the difficulty of 

scholars trained only in one discipline to produce any sound or 

worthwhile study. 

Gurdarshan Singh Dhillon’ s paper, ‘’The Sikh Rule and Ranjit 

Singh” is a historical appraisal of this period. It makes a comparative 

study of how human, liberal and tolerant was his administration, and 

how it successfully inspired the confidence and respect of all 

communities in the state. His analysis reveals that the level of his 

administration in this period in all fields was higher than the 

rule of his contemporaries in the country and outside it. 

xxi

xxii 

This, he concludes, was due to the fact that Sikh ethos primarily 

governed both his functionaries and the people. It is remarkable that 

despite the persecution of the Sikhs under the Moghal adminstration, 

there was never an exhibition of sectarian prejudice or conversions, this 

being evidenced by the extreme loyalty of his Muslim forces in the Anglo- 

Sikh Wars. 

Gurbakhsh Singh Gill’s paper is a rejoinder to a paper “From Ritual 

to Counter-Ritual-Rethinking the Hindu-Sikh Question 1884-1915”, 

written by H.S.Oberoi. The author argues that identity of a religion does 

not depend upon the language, territory, dietary taboos, festivals or a few 

cultural traits. Quoting extensively from Gurbani, he recalls a number of 

features of the Sikh faith, like its view on time and space, pollution, purity, 

Varanashram, rituals, attitudes towards the world, etc. which lend to 

Sikhism an identity distinct from all other previous religious systems. 

In his paper “Some Unexamined Assumptions in Western Studies 

on Sikhism,” James Lewis makes a very incisive and analytical examination 

of Western Studies to find how most of them suffer from unfounded 

assumptions about Sikhism, its doctrines and history. He makes a clear 

and comparative study of different religions and concludes that many of 

the inferences and formulations of the Western writers, have no basis in 

fact or history, especially regarding their suggestions about Sikhism being 

a syncretism, distinction between ‘Early Pacificism and Later Militancy’, 

and calling the Singh Sabha revival Neo-Sikhism. 

Ranbir Singh Sandhu’s paper “Sikhs in America: Stress and 

Survival” is an extremely clear, through and perceptive examination of 

the problems of Sikhs ill North America. Many papers have appeared on 

various aspects of this problem, but there is hardly a more precise and 

objective analysis of the issues involved, which takes into account all 

phases and facets of the problem and its close links with conditions in 

their home state of Punjab. 

In his paper “In the Company of Lions and Princesses”, Jim 

Lotzdraws a graphic picture of the problems of the Sikhs in Canada in the 

developing multi-national, multi-ethnic and multi-cultural Canadian society 

with its various tensions and pulls. He is quite emphatic that Canada is 

developing an ethos of its own, which is communitarian instead of being 

individualistic, like the American society. Hence Canada, he says, is building 

a ‘Community of Communities’ and not aiming at a homogenous social 

structure.

xxiii 

In his closing remarks, I.S. Sara, at the Vancouver Conference, 

expresses surprise at persons who are unclear about the Sikh identity, 

even in the Twentieth century, although in the eighteenth century the 

invaders had clearly perceived and recorded the separate way and identity 

of the Sikhs. He also expresses his unhappiness about the performance of 

the Sikh Chair, the Community had got established at Vancouver. 

The book concludes with two papers by Kharak Singh. The first 

deals with a sample study of entries on Sikhism in over fifty encyclopaedias 

on religion and history published in the West. Statements therein reveal a 

some-what disappointing level of knowledge of Sikh ism and its Gurus. 

There are errors of fact as well as misinterpretations of the Sikh doctrines. 

Guru Nanak has frequently been mentioned as a disciple of Kabir, and 

Sikhism has almost invariably been shown as a sect of Hinduism. This 

paper explains why some Western writers on Sikhism, conditioned by 

their backgroud, have displayed an evident misunderstanding of Sikhism 

and its history. The paper suggests two lessons for the Sikhs, to make 

amends for earlier neglect, and to present a well-researched and authentic 

image of the Sikhs, their religion and history; and for those in the West, 

interested in the study of Sikhism, to be more patient and thorough in 

their search for the truth. 

As a corollary of his first paper, Kharak Singh emphasizes in his 

second paper, the need and justification for a World Institute of Sikhism 

and gives an outline for it. He argues that as a whole-life religion with an 

optimistic attitude towards life and a goal of carrying out the Altruistic 

Will of a Loving Creator, the Sikhs owe it to themselves and their faith to 

present its world-view at the forum of other Higher Religions. The author 

points out that the damage from the earlier indifference, both by the scholars 

and the intelligentia, has been considerable. Efforts made so far, he 

indicates, have been, although commendable, .inadequate. It has been 

evident that in the field of religious studies work by proxy is not possible. 

That is why existing efforts have been neither quite fulfillment nor in any 

sense very serious. Further neglect, in allowing the existing state of affairs 

to continue, he believes, could be suicidal. Hence his emphasis for the 

establishment of an Institute/Centre of Sikh Studies and Education with 

modern facilities for research and publication. 

These conferences of Sikh Studies abroad, have brought to

xxiv 

light certain realities about Western scholarship of Sikhism. The papers 

of King, Kharak Singh and Dhillon, have shown that in the absence of 

adequate knowledge of Guru Granth and the lives of the Gurus, just 

segmentary readings of the Sikh society remain very much superficial and 

out of focus. Similarly Kharak Singh’s paper has revealed that the book 

called Reconstruction of Sikh History from Sikh Literature has been found 

to be deficient in comprehension and coherence, while dealing with Guru 

Nanak, the founder of Sikhism. The difference between some of the unidisciplinary 

writings and the multi-disciplinary understanding of those 

issues, is so wide, that it appears necessary that serious scholars take into 

account the reasons for it, so that future pitfalls are avoided. Hence, our 

emphasis on the study of Guru Granth. The gap between the understanding 

of the man of religion and the comprehension of the philosopher who 

tries to reduce religious truths into a rational and metaphysical framework 

has always been there. The ‘problem arose both with Islam and Christianity. 

For, Toynbee writes, “Thus any presentation, whether particular or general, 

of Scientific truth is always precarious and temporary. The difference in 

character between scientific truth and poetic truth may be summed up as 

follows: Poetic truth is absolute, because it is in the static time dimension; 

scientific truth is relative because it is cumulative in the Time dimension. 

On the poetic level of the subconscious psyche the comprehensive vision 

is Prophecy; on the scientific level of the intellect it is Metaphysics.” It is 

the fundamental difference between the sources and the roots of the two 

views that has essentially to be considered before making any hasty or 

categoric assessment. 

In the case of Sikh Studies, there is another important fact which 

is generally ignored. Indian religions, as also Christianity, because of their 

ideological compulsions, consider the use of spiritual experiences in the 

empirical field, virtually to be a decadent diversion. Accordingly, scholars 

drawn from such a background, seek to comprehend the two courses of 

life as separate and independent. They make the simplistic assumption 

that Guru Nanak was another Indian Sant or pious man preaching the 

path of personal salvation; but they become baffled, when they find that 

from the Fifth Guru onwards the Sikh society was formally organised and 

militarised over a period of hundred years by the later five Gurus. Instead 

of revising their faulty premise and assumptions, they seek to devise 

artificial environmental grounds

for what appears to them to be a major departure. On the other hand, in 

the Indian context the Sikh Gurus were the first prophets who consciously 

and clearly tried to relate spiritual truths and experiences to the empirical 

life of man, so as to rid him of his egoism and enable him to work in line 

with the Altruistic Will of God. The Immanence of God in the empirical 

life is an emphatic truth expressed in the Guru Granth. The essential logic 

of this truth is its expression in the empirical life of society in the form of 

total social responsibility and a universal outlook. It is because of the 

fundamental ideological differences that some scholars are unable to 

comprehend the natural flow, unity and continuity in the lives of the First 

Guru and the later Gurus. For, while in pacificist systems the use of spiritual 

activity for empirical tasks is a fall; in the whole-life system it is spiritually 

and logically essential for the mission of the prophet. That is also the 

reason that many a scholar is unable to comprehend the real significance 

of Guru Nanak’s very revealing decision of not making his son, Sri Chand, 

who represented 2500 years of Indian ascetic tradition, to be his successor, 

and of choosing instead Guru Angad, a God-conscious householder. to 

lead the Panth. To the discerning this step clearly disclosed what were the 

objectives and mission of the Master and what would be the role of the 

Tenth Master and the future shape of his society. 

As the papers and their discussion at those conferences have 

revealed, we believe, it would be very helpful in any study, whether religious, 

historical or sociological, if this basic aspect of Sikhism is kept in view. 

Considering the scholarly discussion at the various conferences, 

it is felt that the section on Sikh Ideology has brought out explicitly the 

doctrinal position of Sikhism and its world-view as a Higher Religion, as 

also the unity of thought and goals of the Ten Gurus. It has been explained 

that while the Miri-Piri doctrine is fundamental to Sikhism, why persons 

drawn from pacificist or dichotomous religions, have sometimes difficulty 

in understanding this doctrine or accepting it as an integral and logical 

component of Sikhism, or, in fact, of all whole-life religions. These 

ideological issues find a systematic treatment in the papers of Daljeet 

Singh, Gurtej Singh, Kharak Singh and Jagjit Singh, that are based 

on the Guru Granth and the work of the Gurus. The handicap of some 

scholars of Sikhism in India and abroad has unfortunately 

been their inability to make a detailed study of the 

xxv

xxvi 

Guru Granth and their uncritical dependence on the simplistic assumption 

that it is a Bhakti system. The question is not whether the Singh Sabha 

interpretation, or for that matter, any other interpretation of Sikh ideology, 

is correct, but whether it synchronises with the ideology of the Guru 

Granth. The incongruity of employing unverified standards of assesment 

to obtain correct answers appears obvious. Partly the fault is of some 

modern methodologies that ignore or minimise the role of ideologies or 

use only unidisciplinary approach. Perhaps, the inevitable fall of the Russian 

Empire in the East and the increasing cracks in the structure of the family 

in the West may prove corrective of the obsession with the environmental 

or the Marxian approach. Dhillon and Kharak Singh’s case studies 

demonstrate how un-dimensional studies are sometimes without balance 

and almost flippant. 

The last two papers by Kharak Singh reiterate the rationale of the 

proposal made at the Conference held by the Sikh Community of North 

America at the Long Beach University in 1988, namely, the urgent need 

of setting up a Centre of Research in Sikh Studies. The resolve was 

formally re-emphasised at most of the Conferences. Organisations in U.K., 

Canada and USA have set up Committees to put up a coordinated proposal 

for the purpose. It is gratifying to record that since then a Centre of Sikh 

Studies with a Library has been started at: 2530, Warner Ave, Santa Anna, 

Orange County, (CA). U.S.A. 

In the end it is our great pleasure to express our gratefulness to all 

the organisations mentioned earlier, and the Sikh Sangats of the various 

areas, for their liberal contributions, enthusiastic cooperation, and 

participation in the conferences to make them a success. Our special thanks 

are also due to Dr(s) Satinder Kaur Mann, Datar Singh Sodhi, Gurmit 

Singh Sekhon, Piara Singh and S. Rajinder Singh Walia for their very 

generous contributions for the holding of the six conferences in North 

America. 

We are particularly grateful to scholars for their very valuable 

contributions to the conferences. 

Jasbir Singh Mann, 

Kharak Singh 

Editors

CONTENTS 

Foreword (v) 

Perface (ix) 

Introduction (xiii) 

SECTION 1 : IDEOLOGY 

1. “Fundamentalism”, “Modernity”: 

Sikhism A Tertium Quid Noel Q King 3 

2. An Incomparable Liturgey : 

Sacred Nit-Nem amng the world Religious Noel Q King 9 

3. Essence of the Sikh Ethics Avtar Singh 13 

4. The Sikh World-View: 

Its Idelogical Identity Daljeet Singh 14 

5. Sikhism : A Miri Piri System Daljeet Singh 42 

6. Political Ideas of Guru Nanak 

The Originator of the Sikh Faith Gurtej Singh 61 

7. Guru Nanak in History of Religious Thought Kharak Singh 72 

8. Kinds of Knowledge and Place of Reason in 

Sri Guru Granth Sahib Gurnam Kaur 91 

SECTION II : METHODOLOGY 

9. An Integrated Methodology for Appraisal of 

Sources for Sikh Studies G S Mansukhani 109 

SECTION III : SIKH HISTORY 

10. Guru Arjun Dev - The Fifth Nanak 

An Apostle of Peace Surinder Singh Kohli 125 

11. The Doctrine of Meeri-Peeri Jagjit Singh 136 

12. Creation of the Khalsa : A Non-Sikh Indian 

Literary Perspective Himadri Banerjee 152 

13. Koer Singh’s Gurbilas Patshahi 10: 

An Eighteenth Century Sikh Literature Madanjit Kaur 161 

14. The Sikhs and the British - 1849-1920 Gurdarshan Singh Dhillon 173 

15. The Sikh Identity - A Cntinuing Feature Gurdarshan Singh Dhillon 226 

16. The Sikh Rule and Ranjit Singh Gurdarshan Singh Dhillon 247 

17. From Ritual to Counter Ritual : 

A Criical Analysis Gurbakhsh Singh 273 

xxvii

xxviii 

18. Some Unexamined Assumptions in Western 

Studies of Sikhism James R. Lewis 286 

19. Sikhs in America : Stress and Survival Ranbir Singh Sandhu 299 

20. In the Company of Lions and Princesses : 

The Sikh Community in the Canadian Mosaic Jim Lotz 319 

21. The Closing Remarks at Vancouver Conference Iqbal Singh Sara 330 

22. Misrepresentation of Sikhism in Western 

Encyclopaedias Kharak Singh 335 

23. Need for World Institute of Sikhism Kharak Singh 359 

Appendix I, II, III, 377 

Select Biblography 383

Recent Researches in Sikhism - Global Sikh Studies

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?